Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Not among those Red Sox fans holding out for their team to come back against Tampa Bay tonight and stay in the playoffs?

You might find this more harmonious: A recital by Rhode Island College music faculty at 8 tonight. The performances are in Sapinsley Hall in the John Nazarian Center for the Performing Arts.

For listings of more to do tonight, tomorrow and through the weekend, take a look at projothebeat.com, The Journal's online calendar of events.

Journal photo / Glenn Osmundson
A wild turkey crosses West Shore Road in Warwick this afternoon. Perhaps it would rather take its chances with a car than a hunter; it's fall turkey hunting season this month in Rhode Island, albeit for archers only.

By Mike Stanton
Journal staff writer

Federal prosecutors have dropped a grand-jury investigation into former state Senate President William V. Irons and his ties to the giant CVS drugstore chain.

A lawyer for Irons confirmed today that he has received a letter from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Providence stating that Irons is no longer the target of a federal corruption probe.

Investigators had looked at Irons' insurance work for Woonsocket-based CVS, which had reaped him several hundred thousand dollars in commissions since the late 1990s.

Irons resigned nearly five years ago, after Providence Journal stories revealing the financial dealings of another senator, John Celona, led to questions about Irons' ties. Irons abruptly resigned, declaring that he had done nothing wrong but that he would not disclose the identity of his corporate insurance clients.

The Journal subsequently reported that Irons, a close friend of CVS CEO Tom Ryan's, had collected commissions on a Blue Cross policy for CVS employees in Rhode Island. During the same period, Irons had opposed pharmacy choice legislation that CVS also opposed.

Irons subsequently became one target of a wide-ranging federal corruption probe, Operation Dollar Bill.

John A. Tarantino, Irons' lawyer, told The Journal today that he received a letter this morning from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

"We have been notified that he is no longer a target of a federal grand-jury investigation,'' said Tarantino.

Tom Connell, a spokesman for U.S. Atty. Robert Clark Corrente, confirmed that the letter was sent.

Irons was happy to hear the news.

"My family and I are pleased that I am no longer a target,'' said Irons. "It's been a difficult 4-1/2 years.

"I'm pleased that the U.S. Attorney's Office came to that conclusion -- I think it was the right one. I respect the Justice Department and the work that they do. Now I want to move on with my life.''

But Irons doesn't see politics in his future.

"No, I had 20 years, and it was a wonderful experience, but now it's time for other leaders to deal with the problems facing our state and our nation,'' he said.

Irons still faces a conflict-of-interest complaint before the Rhode Island Ethics Commission. Tarantino, however, has challenged the commission's authority, and the matter is pending in court.

By C. Eugene Emery Jr.
Journal staff writer

BARRINGTON -- The battle to block a wind turbine on town-owned land in hopes of saving on Barrington's electric bill has gone multimedia.

Opponents have begun circulating a professional-quality 16-minute video blasting the $2.4 million proposal, accusing the town of rushing into the project without fully assessing the costs and benefits. It also asserts that the spinning blades, high on a peninsula at Brickyard Pond near the East Bay Bike Path, will generate too much noise for neighbors and kill birds.

The committee developing the project, which has posted its analysis in detail at BarringtonEnergy.com, says the nearest home would be 1,000 feet from the turbine, the noise will be no greater than a bubbling brook, the blades will kill fewer than five birds per year, and the town stands to save $3.9 million in energy costs -- and possibly a lot more -- over the next 20 years.

Tony Caner, a member of Citizens Wind Watch of Barrington, said the group produced the anti-windmill video because the town committee's presentation has been slanted in favor of the turbine. The video is available on YouTube and will be aired Monday at 6:30 p.m., and at other times throughout the week, on Channel 9 of the Full Channel cable system.

The Town Council has scheduled a hearing on the proposal for 7 p.m. Tuesday in the high school auditorium.

A Bristol man who admitted to tax fraud involving a kickback scheme tied to his Internet services company was sentenced today to one year, plus one day, in federal prison and ordered to pay more than a half-million dollars in back taxes, IRS penalties, interest and a fine.

Louis G. Xifaras, 58, will follow his prison time with one year of supervised, electronically monitored home confinement, under the sentence imposed by Judge Vanessa L. Bryant in U.S. District Court in Hartford, Conn., according to a news release from Acting Connecticut U.S. Attorney Nora R. Dannehy.

Xifaras pleaded guilty on May 2 to one count of filing a false income tax return, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

Xifaras formerly owned Innovative Network Solutions, a company in Pawtucket that provided Internet services including server installations. In 1999, a Southwestern Bell Communications employee proposed that he would ensure Innovative Network Solutions got subcontracting work from SBC in exchange for kickbacks being paid to the SBC employee. The kickbacks were paid to the SBC employee by putting the employee's wife on Innovative Network Solutions payroll as a "no-show" employee, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

>> Continue reading: Bristol man gets prison time, hefty penalties for tax fraud

The Rhode Island Supreme Court has denied state Sen. Stephen D. Alves' request for an appeal of his Democratic primary loss, ending his quest for a new election and cementing Michael J. Pinga as the winner, according to Alves' lawyer.

The move means that Alves, a longtime incumbent and powerful Finance Committee chairman, will lose his Senate seat.

Alves had lost the Sept. 9 primary election for the West Warwick Senate District 9 seat by 17 votes to Pinga, political newcomer.

Citing 18 questionable ballots, 10 of them cast by registered Republicans, Alves called for recounts and appealed to the state's highest court for a new election.

The court denied the cert -- the petition that asked the court for an appeal -- and upheld the state Board of Elections decision, which found Pinga had won after recounting ballots.

Pinga said today: "Now I can really say I'm excited because it's over."

Today's decision came after state Supreme Court Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg held a conference in chambers to consider Secretary of State Ralph Mollis' emergency motion to lift a Supreme Court stay of the Board of Elections ruling, a state Judiciary news release said.

As the clock ticked toward the Nov. 4 general election, the court had issued the stay and continued the matter to Oct. 23 to give State Police time to investigate alleged irregularities in the primary. Now it won't be necessary to meet Oct. 23.

The Judiciary statement said Justice Francis X. Flaherty did not participate in the District 9 appeal.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with reports from Journal staff writer Talia Buford

By Katherine Gregg
Journal State House bureau

The leadership of the state's largest state employees union reached a proposed contract settlement with the Carcieri administration today, on the day before an arbitrator was queued up to begin hearing the high-stakes dispute that affects the state budget and the pocketbooks of thousands of state workers.

In a brief interview after the governor's office announced the signing of the "memorandum of settlement,'' Dennis Grilli, executive director of Council 94, American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, said the proposal is similar - but not identical - to the contract rejected by his membership this summer.

Asked specifically if he believed the new health-care cost proposal was "fairer'' to those low-wage workers that were the thrust of Council 94 President J. Michael Downey's concerns, Grilli said: "We believe it is.''

The governor's statement was brief. It said "a memorandum of settlement has been signed by the State and Council 94 leaders....(that) will now be presented to the union membership for ratification. No additional comment on or details of the agreement will be made public until after the union members have voted.''

"Unfortunately, this was a long process to get us to this point," said Governor Carcieri. "There is no question that the state is facing even more fiscal challenges now than when the original agreement was reached with union leaders in June. This agreement will allow the State to attain the cost savings originally projected, and it is my hope that the union membership will ratify the agreement quickly."

He did not elaborate, but the current state budget was hinged in part on at least $10 million in personnel savings, including higher-payments by Council 94 members - along with other state workers - to their health care.

Asked how and why the governor still expected to achieve the savings hinged on early-summer passage of the new contract, his spokeswoman Amy Kempe said: "We are not going to comment on the settlement until the union members have a chance to vote on it.''

As a result of the proposed settlement, both parties have agreed to postpone the arbitration hearing until union membership votes. Council 94 members are expected to vote on the memorandum of settlement on or before Oct. 24.

Those signing the agreement included Department of Administration Director Jerome Williams for the state, and Grilli, Downey and Council 94 vice president Jonathan Braddock, among others.

Mike Ritz, with slides in the background showing forms of interrogation, speaks to Johnson & Wales students today at the school's Pepsi Forum in Providence.

By Kate Bramson
projo.com staff writer

As the CEO of a program that tortured people who wanted "authentic military experiences," former U.S. Army interrogator Michael Ritz is well-versed about the controversial tactic known as waterboarding.

Today, more than 200 Johnson & Wales students watched a video in which he and others chained a willing participant down on his back, gripped a wet washcloth over his mouth, and poured water from a military-style water canteen and bucket onto his mouth and chest. By simulating drowning with this method, captors hope to encourage a captive to talk, Ritz explained.

Ritz first drew people to his Team Delta program while he was still in the U.S. Army, where he was an Arabic and Spanish interrogator. He left active duty in 1999 and continued to create a POW interrogation resistance program, similar to one used by the Army.

Now, Ritz still focuses on waterboarding and torture, but in a very different way. After training hundreds -- more men than women -- to withstand torture and other interrogation techniques, he said today he hasn't held a training for about two years.

Instead, he speaks out so that people can understand what happens when military personnel engage in torture.

"It doesn't work," he said today. It isn't reliable, and he's concerned about it being a viable option.

"I want it to be taken off the table," he said.

And instead of running a program on how to resist interrogation, Ritz now works as a fundraiser for The Genesis Center here in Providence, whose mission is to help people of diverse cultures become self-sufficient through education and services.

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The mosquito population has all but bid goodbye to the year, and the season's last test results from around Rhode Island found no West Nile Virus or Eastern Equine Encephalitis.

Due to colder weather and there being very few mosquitoes hanging around, no more traps have been set since the week of Oct. 7, the Department of Environmental Management said today.

Still, the DEM said in a news release that Rhode Islanders -- especially those hiking in the woods -- should be mindful that when the weather is warmer and the air still, there can be occasional mosquitoes biting.

Journal Business staff

Providence-based Textron Inc. notified about 20 employees in Rhode Island today that they will lose their jobs as part of the company's plan to restructure its Textron Financial Corporation subsidiary.

The company will reduce that unit's 1,200 person workforce by about 9 percent, said Karen Gordon Quintal, a spokeswoman for Textron. About 210 Textron Financial employees work in Rhode Island -- about 180 at the parent company's world headquarters in Providence, and about 30 at a customer care center in Warwick.

The company plans to eliminate about 20 of those 210 jobs, she said. There is no set time frame by which all the layoffs will occur, she said.

"It will vary, depending on their specific job function," she said. Textron will allow the affected employees "an appropriate amount of time to transition out of their position."

Textron employs 565 people in Rhode Island and about 1,000 in Massachusetts, largely at the Textron Defense Systems unit in Wilmington.

Textron reported this morning its third-quarter profit tumbled 19 percent as the credit crisis eroded its finance business. It also announced plans to liquidate parts of that unit and slash costs companywide.

NANTUCKET, Mass. -- The co-president of financial services company Goldman Sachs is trying to sell his Nantucket estate for a record $55 million.

Jon Winkelried's asking price for the 5.75-acre property, which includes two shoreline parcels, is more than double the record sale of $26.5 million set last year.

The main house includes a wine room, billiard room, four fireplaces, a swimming pool and five bedrooms. The property also has a guest house and two garages.

Winkelried bought the two parcels in 1999 for just under $7 million and built the main house afterward.

The taxes are nearly $68,000 annually.

Winkelried owned $345 million worth of common stock when he took over as co-president of Goldman Sachs in 2006. His compensation last year was $67.5 million.

-- The Associated Press

The operator of a Johnston janitorial company targeted in state courthouse immigration raids in July will plead guilty to hiring undocumented foreign workers, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced today.

Vincent D'Elia, an operator of Falcon Maintenance Company, was charged yesterday in a one-count information alleging that D'Elia engaged in a pattern and practice of hiring aliens for employment, knowing that those aliens were not authorized for employment in the United States, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

D'Elia's agreement to plead guilty to the charge was filed in conjunction with the information, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Falcon Maintenance was one of two companies that contracted with the Rhode Island Judiciary for janitorial services at state courthouses. Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents and Rhode Island State Police raided several state courthouses on July 15, taking several alleged undocumented foreign workers into custody. Four of them face federal criminal charges that are pending.

In exchange for the guilty the guilty plea, the government agreed to not prosecute D'Elia for willful evasion of FICA taxes (Federal Insurance Contributions Act) for failing to "accurately and truthfully withhold and pay over FICA taxes" from the pay of undocumented workers between Jan. 1, 2004 and July 15, 2008.

If convicted, D'Elia could face up to six months in prison and a fine of $3,000 for each unauthorized worker.

>> Continue reading: Update: Janitorial contractor to admit to charge after raid

Journal photo/ Bill Murphy
Actor Martin Sheen (right) greets workers at UPS in Warwick, as he campaigns for U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (center) this morning. Kennedy, D-R.I., faces a challenge from Republican Jonathan Scott in the November election.

The West Warwick Town Council is to meet tonight to discuss a settlement offer that, if approved by the council, would dismiss a $1.1-million lawsuit filed by the West Warwick School Committee against the town in April.

The school committee unanimously approved the offer Tuesday.

Under the settlement, the town would agree to pay the $1,162,343 the schools owe to various creditors. The one-time payment would not be considered a loan.

The school department owes $475,000 to the state teachers pension fund, $436,160 to the Warwick School Department for tuition, and $341,470 to First Student, the district's bus contractor.

The special meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. at the Council Chambers, 1170 Main St., West Warwick.

The saga over the contested Senate District 9 seat in West Warwick continues today.

State Supreme Court Justice Maureen McKenna Goldberg has agreed to meet with Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis today to discuss the political impasse. Mollis has asked the court to make a decision on the case because his office is running out of time to print the ballots for the Nov. 4 election.

Longtime incumbent Sen. Stephen D. Alves, the powerful Finance Committee chairman, lost the Democratic primary election to political newcomer Michael J. Pinga, local baker, by a 17-vote margin.

Alves, citing voting irregularities, has asked the highest court to order a new election in the Senate district that covers all of West Warwick.

The high court said last week that it will not decide whether to hear the Alves' case until Oct. 23, less than two weeks before the general election. A court spokesman said that the justices wanted to know the outcome of a state police investigation first.

By Donita Naylor
Journal staff writer

PROVIDENCE -- Ten people are homeless today after a fire in a three-story house on Lisbon Street yesterday afternoon.

The fire injured a firefighter and and sent three occupants to hospitals, a battalion chief said last night.

When firefighters arrived around 3 p.m., acting Battalion Chief James L. Potenza said, flames were showing at the front of 60-62 Lisbon St. on the second and third floors. "We had reports that there might be children inside," Potenza said, so about 20 firefighters searched the burning building. "There was no one inside."

One firefighter suffered neck and back injuries. Potenza said the injured firefighter was taken to Rhode Island Hospital and was expected to be released last night. Two children, who were outside when the first firefighters arrived, were taken to Hasbro for observation, and one adult who reported minor injuries was also taken to a hospital.

Lisbon Street overlooks the grounds of the Veterans Administration Hospital. Nearby is Roger Williams Medical Center.

Three families lived there, Potenza said, but the house is uninhabitable. He said the fire seems to have started on the second floor. The cause is unknown but is being investigated.

No other homes were in danger.

On this day in 1962, the Cuban missile crisis began as President John F. Kennedy was informed that reconnaissance photographs had revealed the presence of missile bases in Cuba.

Read more about today in history.

PROVIDENCE -- With potential rain showers this afternoon, today likely won't be as nice a day as yesterday was.

Nevertheless, take advantage of the high near 69 if you can. The days are only getting colder as we head toward the weekend.

This morning's patchy fog may clear by 8 a.m., but the sky's likely to remain cloudy and gray.

Highs tomorrow and through the weekend will be in the mid- to high-50s. Lows will likely be in the high 30s and maybe up to 40 on Sunday.

Get the latest conditions and forecasts from projo.com.

Today's front page features coverage of last night's presidential debate and a staff report on vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's visit to New Hampshire.

Download a copy of today's front page in .pdf format.