Rescuers ready for lobster season

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia – The start of the fall lobster season off southwestern Nova Scotia on Monday will be monitored closely by search and rescue officials.

About 1,700 vessels will race out to dump their traps in one of the region’s richest lobster fisheries.

It’s estimated the catch is worth about $275 million to the local economy.

Ten vessels and three aircraft from three federal departments will be on an increased level of preparedness over the first two days of the fishery.

Attention will be focused on an area stretching from Yarmouth to Cape Sable Island.

The Coast Guard said it will also place on standby a number of vessels to react in the event of an emergency.

Toddler killed in Mass. hit-and-run

GREENFIELD, Mass. (AP) – A 26-year-old Amherst man pleaded innocent on Friday to causing the death of a two-year-old boy in a hit-and-run crash on Interstate 91.

Nathan D. Pederzini appeared in Greenfield District Court charged with offenses including motor vehicle homicide, leaving the scene of personal injury or death and operating on a revoked license as a habitual traffic offender.

Pederzini was ordered held without bail pending a hearing scheduled for Monday.

The toddler, identified as Jose Candelaria, died after the truck Pederzini was driving allegedly plowed into the back of the car Jose was riding in.

Jose, who was strapped securely into a car seat, died at the scene.

His mother, Ann Marie Candelaria, 36, of Greenfield, and her boyfriend, Raymond Masso, 38 of Chicopee were taken to area hospitals. On Friday afternoon, Candelaria was listed in good condition and Masso was in critical condition, a spokesman at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield said.

X-country courses seek fake’ snow

MILWAUKEE (AP) – Some cross-country ski course operators are taking a cue from their downhill brethren and turning to snowmaking machines.

They’re spending millions of dollars on snowmaking systems they hope will get them through snowless stretches of winter.

Like ski clubs in Madison and the northern community of Iola in recent years, Lapham Peak State Park in the Town of Delafield will start making snow for part of its lighted cross-country trail this winter season.

A group also is trying to raise $500,000 to add underground water pipes, a water reservoir and snow guns to the park’s trail system.

“We want it for more reliable and longer skiing,” said Ed Muzik, the park’s property manager. “The last couple of years have been problematic with snow.”

Chris Frado, executive director of the Cross Country Ski Areas Association in Winchester, N.H., blames shifting weather patterns on the lack of snow.

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