Now is looks like another restaurant will be moving into the location.

Friendlys closed this restaurant back in January as part of its restructuring under Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Now Grace Properties has  leased the space here for an upscale Asian restaurant called Zen-Asian Bistro which will feature Japanese food including Sushi.

Many local residents we spoke with like Natalie Pedace were hoping for another s family type restaurant to move in here,”I would prefer a family restaurant, this is such a family oriented town, lots of young couples, young children, we loved the Friendlys there and it’s going to be missed,” says Pedace.

Apparently there was little or no interest in re-opening this site as a child-friendly, family restaurant.

Residents like Steve Schiffman understand the reality of the business world,”I think as far as these days to try and run a restaurant without a liquor license I think that was probably one of the things that  kept out any sort of quote unquote kid friendly restaurant , not the best case scenario but better than being empty,” says Schiffman.

One resident told us that if this site re-opens as a new Asian restaurant , it would be four in town including the Huke Lau across the street from the Longmeadow Shops.

Another resident ,Bruce Hochberg, said he’s okay with another restaurant even though it won’t be a Friendlys,” It doesn’t bother me, I go out to eat a lot, I’ll try them all,” says Hochberg.

If Zen-Asian Bistro  opens at the Longmeadow Shops it won’t be the only new restaurant opening there.

Max Burgers is opening at the other end of the shops.

¤

W4 23 ]] C2.5 G 0 [[

ENG OUT

((eng out))

In this Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008 photo, espresso flows into a cup at a coffee house in Overland Park, Kan. A large U.S. federal study concludes people who drink coffee seem to live a little longer. Researchers saw a clear connection between cups consumed and years of life. Whether it was regular or decaf didn’t matter. The results are published in the Thursday, May 17, 2012 New England Journal of Medicine. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

In this Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008 photo, espresso flows into a cup at a coffee house in Overland Park, Kan. A large U.S. federal study concludes people who drink coffee seem to live a little longer. Researchers saw a clear connection between cups consumed and years of life. Whether it was regular or decaf didn’t matter. The results are published in the Thursday, May 17, 2012 New England Journal of Medicine. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

FILE – In this Monday, Sept. 29, 2008 file photo, 77,000 cups sit in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin for use in a television show to illustrate how many cups of coffee the average German drinks during their lifetime. A large U.S. federal study concludes people who drink coffee seem to live a little longer. Researchers saw a clear connection between cups consumed and years of life. Whether it was regular or decaf didn’t matter. The results are published in the Thursday, May 17, 2012 New England Journal of Medicine. (AP Photo/Herbert Knosowski)

FILE – In this Wednesday, April 30, 2003 file photo, Yoshi Kato tests coffee for aroma, texture and taste during a contest of Nicaraguan coffee growers in Managua, Nicaragua. A large U.S. federal study concludes people who drink coffee seem to live a little longer. Researchers saw a clear connection between cups consumed and years of life. Whether it was regular or decaf didn’t matter. The results are published in the Thursday, May 17, 2012 New England Journal of Medicine. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

FILE – In this Wednesday, March 21, 2012 file photo, a person reaches for a cup of coffee before a meeting in Seattle. A large U.S. federal study concludes people who drink coffee seem to live a little longer. Researchers saw a clear connection between cups consumed and years of life. Whether it was regular or decaf didn’t matter. The results are published in the Thursday, May 17, 2012 New England Journal of Medicine. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

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MILWAUKEE (AP) — One of life’s simple pleasures just got a little sweeter. After years of waffling research on coffee and health, even some fear that java might raise the risk of heart disease, a big study finds the opposite: Coffee drinkers are a little more likely to live longer. Regular or decaf doesn’t matter.

The study of 400,000 people is the largest ever done on the issue, and the results should reassure any coffee lovers who think it’s a guilty pleasure that may do harm.

“Our study suggests that’s really not the case,” said lead researcher Neal Freedman of the National Cancer Institute. “There may actually be a modest benefit of coffee drinking.”

No one knows why. Coffee contains a thousand things that can affect health, from helpful antioxidants to tiny amounts of substances linked to cancer. The most widely studied ingredient — caffeine — didn’t play a role in the new study’s results.

It’s not that earlier studies were wrong. There is evidence that coffee can raise LDL, or bad cholesterol, and blood pressure at least short-term, and those in turn can raise the risk of heart disease.

Even in the new study, it first seemed that coffee drinkers were more likely to die at any given time. But they also tended to smoke, drink more alcohol, eat more red meat and exercise less than non-coffee-drinkers. Once researchers took those things into account, a clear pattern emerged: Each cup of coffee per day nudged up the chances of living longer.

The study was done by the National Institutes of Health and AARP. The results are published in Thursday’s New England Journal of Medicine.

Careful, though — this doesn’t prove that coffee makes people live longer, only that the two seem related. Like most studies on diet and health, this one was based strictly on observing people’s habits and resulting health. So it can’t prove cause and effect.

But with so many people, more than a decade of follow-up and enough deaths to compare, “this is probably the best evidence we have” and are likely to get, said Dr. Frank Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health. He had no role in this study but helped lead a previous one that also found coffee beneficial.

The new one began in 1995 and involved AARP members ages 50 to 71 in California, Florida, Louisiana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Atlanta and Detroit. People who already had heart disease, a stroke or cancer weren’t included. Neither were folks at diet extremes — too many or too few calories per day.

The rest gave information on coffee drinking once, at the start of the study. “People are fairly consistent in their coffee drinking over their lifetime,” so the single measure shouldn’t be a big limitation, Freedman said.

Of the 402,260 participants, about 42,000 drank no coffee. About 15,000 drank six cups or more a day. Most people had two or three.

By 2008, about 52,000 of them had died. Compared to those who drank no coffee, men who had two or three cups a day were 10 percent less likely to die at any age. For women, it was 13 percent.

Even a single cup a day seemed to lower risk a little: 6 percent in men and 5 percent in women. The strongest effect was in women who had four or five cups a day — a 16 percent lower risk of death.

None of these are big numbers, though, and Freedman can’t say how much extra life coffee might buy.

“I really can’t calculate that,” especially because smoking is a key factor that affects longevity at every age, he said.

Coffee drinkers were less likely to die from heart or respiratory disease, stroke, diabetes, injuries, accidents or infections. No effect was seen on cancer death risk, though.

Other research ties coffee drinking to lower levels of markers for inflammation and insulin resistance. Researchers also considered that people in poor health might refrain from drinking coffee and whether their abstention could bias the results. But the study excluded people with cancer and heart disease — the most common health problems — to minimize this chance. Also, the strongest benefits of coffee drinking were seen in people who were healthiest when the study began.

About two-thirds of study participants drank regular coffee, and the rest, decaf. The type of coffee made no difference in the results.

Hu had this advice for coffee lovers:

— Watch the sugar and cream. Extra calories and fat could negate any benefits from coffee.

— Drink filtered coffee rather than boiled — filtering removes compounds that raise LDL, the bad cholesterol.

Researchers did not look at tea, soda or other beverages but plan to in future analyses.

Lou and Mariann Maris have already compared them. Sipping a local brew at a lakefront coffee shop, the suburban Milwaukee couple told of how they missed coffee after briefly giving it up in the 1970s as part of a health kick that included transcendental meditation and eating vegetarian.

Mariann Maris switched to tea after being treated for breast cancer in 2008, but again missed the taste of coffee. It’s one of life’s great pleasures, especially because her husband makes it, she said.

“Nothing is as satisfying to me as a cup of coffee in the morning,” she said.

___

Online:

New England Journal: http://www.nejm.org

___

Follow Marilynn Marchione’s coverage on Twitter http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s estranged wife, who had fought drug and alcohol problems, was found dead in her home, her attorney said.

Mary Kennedy’s body was found on Wednesday, said attorney Kerry Lawrence, who didn’t know the cause of her death. Police confirmed a body was found on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s property in Bedford, north of New York City, but wouldn’t release the dead person’s name.

Robert Kennedy Jr. is a prominent environmental lawyer. He’s the son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, both assassinated in the 1960s. Mary Kennedy was his second wife. They had four children.

Mary Kennedy had had trouble with drugs and alcohol and had two high-profile arrests around the time her husband filed for divorce in July 2010.

She was charged that August with driving under the influence of drugs, not long after she pleaded guilty to drunken driving when police reported her seeing her car hit a curb outside a school near her home. Police said she had a blood-alcohol level of 0.11 percent; the legal limit is 0.08 percent. Her license was suspended.

Lawrence had represented her.

Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has passed Republican legislation to renew an anti-domestic violence law.

Wednesday’s vote to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act for five years followed an emotional debate over whether the House GOP bill would better protect women from violence and sexual assault than a Senate-passed version. The White House, most Democrats and a long list of advocacy groups say the House version doesn’t go far enough to protect battered immigrants, Native Americans or gays.

The 1994 law has been renewed twice with wide bipartisan agreement. But this presidential and congressional election year gender politics bred controversy and the House and Senate must now reconcile their versions.

House Republicans said their bill did more to protect taxpayer money from fraud.

Associated Press

Jesse Plemons has joined the cast of Breaking Bad for its fifth and final season, TVLine.com reports.

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Jesse Plemons has joined the cast of Breaking Bad for its fifth and final season, TVLine.com reports.

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In fact, it’s now being reported that only one out of every four teens looking for a job actually gets hired.

That number drops to one out of every ten students when it comes to urban areas.

Those numbers come from a study from the center for labor market studies and Northeastern University.

That’s why the Regional Employment Board says it’s important to take advantage of state money that’s given to local communities for teen jobs.

Bill Ward from the regional employment board says, “So it is critical that we mount a major major effort again this summer with government — federal, state, and local and with the private sector to really look hard at how we create opportunities for young people.”

The board says Hampden County is getting $800,000 from the state for jobs.

$450,000 is going to the City of Springfield alone.

Robert Kennedy Jr. and his estranged wife Mary Richardson Kennedy are seen at a film premiere in New York Feb. 3, 2009. (Credit: AP Photo/Peter Kramer)

NEW YORK (AP) — An attorney says Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s estranged wife has been found dead in New York.

Kerry Lawrence says Mary Kennedy died on Wednesday. He says he doesn’t know the cause of her death.

Police confirm a body was found on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s property in Bedford, north of New York City.

Lawrence had represented Mary Kennedy in a drunken-driving case.

Robert Kennedy Jr. is a prominent environmental lawyer. He’s the son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, both assassinated in the 1960s.

Mary Kennedy was his second wife. They had four children.

Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB)– The city of Springfield gets more financial help from the state in its tornado rebuilding effort.

When a tornado swept through Western Massachusetts last June first including parts of Springfield,  it  was a devastating blow.

But the community has pulled together to get back on its feet.

Springfield developed a master plan to help businesses and homeowners.

On Wednesday, Lt. Governor Tim Murray announced a $300,000 grant for DevelopSpringfield to help in tornado rebuilding efforts.

“It’s going to help Develop Springfield continue to work with the mayor, to work with community leaders on issues around housing, on how we rebuild,” says Murray.

Progress is being made but much work remains.

City leaders like Mayor Domenic Sarno say the public-private partnership has helped Springfield move forward in redeveloping the city bigger, better, and stronger.  “This complements it very well, we continue to not only rebuild the city of Springfield but more importantly to re-define the city of Springfield,” says Sarno.

DevelopSpringfield Chairman Nick Fyntrilakis also says the state partnership has been a catalyst for Springfield to move forward.  “This is certainly a step in the right direction, and it’s very appreciated, it’s very important to us to be able to sustain the work we’re doing, and drive the work we’re moving forward.  It’s a huge help,” says Fyntrilakis.

Springfield hosted 19 community meetings and received feedback from thousands of its residents.

It’s a response that the lieutenant governor calls unprecedented.  “Taking a stake in ownership, how they want their community, their city rebuilt, and that’s how it’s going to get done,” says Murray.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s estranged wife Mary Kennedy was found dead Wednesday, TMZ.com reports. She was 52.

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Jenelle Evans is engaged to boyfriend Gary Head, US Weekly reports.

Teen Mom’s Jenelle Evans’ new breasts are the “perfect size”

Head…

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Jenelle Evans is engaged to boyfriend Gary Head, US Weekly reports.

Teen Mom’s Jenelle Evans’ new breasts are the “perfect size”

Head…

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President Barack Obama awards posthumously the Medal of Honor to Rose Mary Sabo-Brown, widow of Specialist Leslie H. Sabo, Jr., US Army, Wednesday, May 16, 2012, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Sabo was killed in 1970 in Cambodia during the Vietnam War. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama awards posthumously the Medal of Honor to Rose Mary Sabo-Brown, widow of Specialist Leslie H. Sabo, Jr., US Army, Wednesday, May 16, 2012, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington. Sabo was killed in 1970 in Cambodia during the Vietnam War. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama awards posthumously the Medal of Honor to Rose Mary Sabo-Brown, widow of Specialist Leslie H. Sabo, Jr., US Army, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, May 16, 2012. Sabo was killed in 1970 in Cambodia during the Vietnam War. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Members of Specialist Leslie H. Sabo, Jr., US Army unit stand as they are acknowledged by President Barack Obama and audience members during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, May 16, 2012, where the president awarded posthumously the Medal of Honor to Rose Mary Sabo-Brown, widow of Specialist Leslie H. Sabo, Jr., US Army. Sabo was killed in 1970 in Cambodia during the Vietnam War. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

In a May 10, 2012 photo Rose Mary Sabo-Brown talks about the pride she feels for her husband, Army Specialist Leslie H. Sabo, Jr., as she holds a photo of him at her home in New Castle, Pa. He was killed in Cambodia and is to posthumously receive the Medal of Honor in a ceremony next week. (AP Photo/Andrew Russell, Tribune-Review)

In an undated photo Rose Mary Sabo-Brownis shown with her husband Army Specialist Leslie H. Sabo, Jr. Sabo was killed in Cambodia and is to posthumously receive the Medal of Honor in a ceremony next week. (AP Photo/Andrew Russell, Tribune-Review)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Leslie Sabo’s Vietnam War ended in the flash of his own grenade, hurled at an enemy bunker in Cambodia to save surrounded comrades. Forty years later — and a dozen years after the long-lost paperwork turned up in military archives — he was honored by President Obama on Wednesday with the nation’s highest award for gallantry.

Obama presented the Medal of Honor to Sabo’s widow, Rose Mary, and said doing so helps right the wrongs done to a generation that served freedom’s cause but came home to a brooding and resentful nation.

“Instead of being celebrated, our Vietnam veterans were often shunned,” Obama said in a hushed East Room. “They were called many things when there was only one thing that they deserved to be called and that was American patriots.”

Spec. Leslie H. Sabo Jr. of Elwood City, Pa., was serving with U.S. forces near the village of Se San in eastern Cambodia in May of 1970 when his unit was ambushed and nearly overrun by North Vietnamese forces.

Comrades testified that the rifleman charged up from the rear, grabbed an enemy grenade and tossed it away, using his body to shield a fellow soldier. And shrugging off his own injuries, Sabo advanced on an enemy bunker that had poured fire onto the U.S. troops — and then, pulled the pin on his own grenade.

“It’s said he held that grenade and didn’t throw it until the last possible moment, knowing it would take his own life but knowing he could silence that bunker,” Obama recounted. “And he did. He saved his comrades, who meant more to him than life.”

After the ceremony, Rose Mary Sabo-Brown told reporters, “I know a piece of cloth and a medal won’t bring him back, but my heart beams with pride for Leslie because he is finally receiving tribute for his sacrifices and bravery,” she said.

Not long after the battle, survivors from Company B, 3rd Battalion, 506th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division filed reports attesting to Sabo’s heroism. But somehow the documentation was lost.

“The fog of war and paperwork that seemed to get lost in the shuffle meant that this story was almost lost to history,” Obama said, adding that for decades, Sabo’s family never knew of his valor.

But in 1999, Alton Mabb, another veteran from the 101st Airborne “Screaming Eagles” found the original paperwork at the National Archives while researching an article for the division’s magazine. A few weeks later he asked archives personnel to send him copies and began the push to get Sabo recognized.

According to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, before Sabo the medal had been awarded 3,458 times since it was first issued in 1863. There are fewer than 90 living recipients.

At the ceremony, Obama recognized Mabb for his persistence.

But the biggest applause — a cheering, standing ovation unusual for such events — went to two dozen survivors from Bravo Company who stood to acknowledge the president’s homage.

“On days such as these, we can pay tribute,” Obama said. “We can express our gratitude that there are patriots and families such as these.”

___

Associated Press writer Pauline Jelinek contributed to this report.

Associated Press

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The U.S. Navy says an amphibious assault ship and a replenishment tanker collided in the Pacific Ocean but there were no injuries and no fuel spills.

A Third Fleet public affairs statement says the collision between the assault ship USS Essex and the oiler USNS Yukon occurred at midmorning Wednesday approximately 120 miles off Southern California.

The Navy says an apparent steering malfunction occurred as Essex approached the Yukon for replenishment while under way.

Neither ships’ fuel tanks or systems were compromised, but the Navy says a full assessment of any damage is continuing.

The Essex is due to return to San Diego on Thursday after 12 years based in Sasebo, Japan.

Associated Press

A Third Fleet public affairs statement says the collision between the assault ship USS Essex and the oiler USNS Yukon occurred at midmorning Wednesday approximately 120 miles off Southern California.

The Navy says an apparent steering malfunction occurred as Essex approached the Yukon for replenishment while under way.

Neither ships’ fuel tanks or systems were compromised, but the Navy says a full assessment of any damage is continuing.

The Essex is due to return to San Diego on Thursday after 12 years based in Sasebo, Japan.

Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved

The threats, posted during the late evening hours Tuesday on FaceBook, were reported to police by the parent of a friend of the arrested subject.

The 16 year-old was taken into custody at Tantasqua Regional High School, by Sturbridge Police and later transported to Dudley Juvenile Court. The threats were reportedly due to conflicts the subject was having with other students at the school. The school administration was notified of this incident by police.

Police Chief Thomas Ford told ABC40 News, “Police and School officials took immediate action upon learning about the posts.  A parent informed us of them.  We feel that at no time were the students or faculty in any danger today.”

He was charged with violating Chapter 269, sec 14 of Mass General Laws concerning “making firearm threats toward a school.”

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WGGB) — Wednesday, the City of Springfield announced an interfaith prayer service to commemorate the one year anniversary of the June 1st tornado.

Clergy from different churches in the Valley will be on hand to offer prayers and testimonies of faith.

“We want to continue to offer prayers and inspiration to the leaders who are leading in the efforts of hte rebuilding of springfield. Especially the mayor of springfield and those surrounding communities, it’s important that we come together and do this,” says Timothy Paul from the Council of Churches of Greater Springfield.

The prayer meeting will start at 4:00 p.m. on June 1st  at the First Church of Christ, in Court Square, in Springfield.

At 4:37 p.m. bells will chime, marking the time the tornado touched down.

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