Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

A Rhode Island Philharmonic Youth Wind Ensemble concert is tonight from 8 to 10.

It is the first such concert of the season and will be with the Rhode Island College Wind Ensemble.

It's being held at Rhode Island College, Sapinsley Hall, Providence.

For more to do tonight and throughout the week, check out projothebeat.com, projo.com's calendar of events around our region.

A Baltimore kickboxer today was sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole for a murder two years ago in a Warwick motel.

Malbon Bolden, 47, of 7007 Lachlan Circle, Baltimore, was sentenced by Judge Edwin J. Gale in Kent County Superior Court for murdering Maria Sample, 44, on March 19, 2006, according to a news release from Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch's office.

The judge also ordered Bolden to serve one year on one count of resisting arrest.

On Sept. 3, Bolden pleaded guilty to the charges in what the attorney general's office said was not a negotiated plea because the state did not give up any rights in securing it and did not dismiss any counts of the indictment.

Bolden has been held without bail at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston since Warwick police arrested him.

In his guilty plea, Bolden acknowledged the state would have shown he murdered Sample and that the death was in a "manner consistent with aggravated battery or torture," the attorney general's office said. That gave the court the option of imposing life imprisonment without parole, but the judge did not impose life without parole in this case.

The attorney general's office said that more than 40 relatives and friends of the victim were in court today.

>> Continue reading: Man gets life imprisonment for Warwick motel murder

Journal photo / Bob Breidenbach
Investigators continue today to work the scene of a fatal plane crash that occurred last night near the North Central State Airport. Watch of a video of the scene and hear investigators talk about the crash.

By Thomas J. Morgan
Journal staff writer

More than 200 yards down a dirt driveway today lay the wreckage of a plane, white metal glowing in the afternoon sun that sliced through secondary growth trees in one of the more rural parts of Smithfield.

Blackened streaks from fire scarred the upside-down remains. Two bodies had been removed by the state medical examiner. Killed in the crash were Ronald Tetreault, 64, of Glocester, and Robert Zoglio Jr., 43, of Richmond, their wives said today.

They died after the small plane they were flying crashed into woods between Clark Road and Limerock Road about a half-mile from the North Central State Airport in Smithfield at about 5 p.m. yesterday.

The fire was "post-impact," said Shawn D. Etcher, an air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, during a news conference this afternoon in Smithfield.

Etcher said that a report that the plane lost power was merely "a rumor" at this point. But he said that the purported power loss would be looked into as part of the probe.

A clutch of felled trunks pointed toward the wreckage, indicating that the aircraft had been flying in a roughly northeast direction when it clipped the top of the trees.

James J. Warcup, an aeronautics inspector for the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, said today that at least some of the trees had been cut down before the crash. One broken trunk, still erect, was at least five inches in diameter. Whether it had been involved in the incident was not known.

An electrical cable strung from poles lining the driveway survived the crash. Warcup said the plane apparently cleared the cable before crashing perhaps 100 feet beyond.

The crash site sat within a sort of courtyard, a clearing in the woods half surrounded by an ornate stone wall. A large utility building or garage stood within the courtyard.

Warcup said the now-abandoned complex had been "a project in the '60s or '70s that didn't work out." Plans for a house evidently were never completed, he said.

Warcup and Etcher said it would take six months to a year for the NTSB to issue a report listing the cause of the accident. "We're not going to jump to any conclusions," Warcup said. He added that a preliminary check of the wreckage indicated that "all pieces are accounted for."

Etcher said the plane wreckage would be moved today to a hangar at nearby North Central State Airport, where it would be looked over for several days.

"If there's a part that's different from normal, we'll check it out," he said.

Are you trying to find work at a shopping mall or store to make extra money for the holidays?

If you're a Rhode Islander looking for a seasonal retail job and are willing to talk about what you're finding -- or not finding -- this season please contact Providence Journal reporter Lynn Arditi at larditi@projo.com or call (401)277-7335. (If you call, please leave a daytime phone number.)

By Barbara Polichetti
Journal staff writer

CRANSTON -- The Coastway Cares Charitable Foundation today announced that it is pledging $100,000 to Kent Hospital's $2.8 million capital campaign for a new heart center.

The pledge from the non-profit foundation supported and managed by employees of Coastway Credit Union is the largest commitment the foundation has made in the past few years and one of the largest donations Kent has received since launching its fundraising campaign about a year ago, according to officials at both Coastway and Kent.

"I'm so proud to be able to make this contribution to such an important project in the community," William White, president and CEO of Coastway, said today. Based in Cranston, Coastway Credit Union has seven branches throughout the state and about 30,000 members

Liz Zima, a senior philanthropy officer with the Kent Hospital Foundation, said that the hospital has raised more than $1 million since launching its capital campaign about a year ago. The goal is for the 2009 opening of a center that would give residents in the central and southern part of the state access to emergency angioplasty services.

Journal photo / Bob Thayer
Law enforcement officials look on as two backhoes dig today for the remains of a mobster believed to be Joseph "Joe Onions" Scanlon in a side yard of an apartment complex at 378 Bullocks Point Avenue in East Providence. See video of the activity at the site today.

EAST PROVIDENCE -- For a second day, the earth-removal search for what may be the body of reputed mobster and police informant Joseph P. "Joe Onions" Scanlon has been suspended in an apartment building's yard.

The dig in the triangular grassy area behind Lisboa Apartments, at 378 Bullocks Point Ave., in the Riverside section, is slated to resume at 9 a.m. tomorrow.

Two state Department of Transportation backhoes were worked throughout most of the day in the search for what authorities described as the victim of a three-decade-old mob murder. They would dig one hole, fill it up, then dig another hole and fill it, as they progressed around the building.

One backhoe began the task yesterday, before stopping as darkness fell. The work started up again at 9 this morning.

So far, workers have turned up carpet strips and plastic bags but no remains.

Rhode Island State Police troopers, wearing their black State Police windbreakers, secured the site.

Officially, the state police won't comment on whose remains they are searching for.

"We are excavating, looking for the remains of a historic assassination, mob hit," Lt. Col. Steven G. O'Donnell said this morning.

Yesterday, investigators said they believe the body presumed buried at the site to be that of Joseph P. "Joe Onions" Scanlon, a reputed Providence mobster and police informant believed slain in a Knight Street bar in 1978.

Two men, Andrew F. Merola and Nicholas "Nicky" Pari, pleaded no contest to killing him in 1982.

The two had been convicted of the murder in 1979 -- marking the state's first such conviction without a victim's body having been found -- but the convictions were overturned by the state Supreme Court on grounds the trial judge had improperly excluded defense testimony that could have discredited testimony of one of the state's key witnesses.

Pari, whom the state police call a longtime mob associate, was arrested yesterday on weapons and racketeering charges as part of an undercover sting operation that nabbed 18 people. Mobster Gerald Tillinghast was also arrested.

Investigators said Pari told them Scanlon's body was buried at that address in East Providence.

Four more arrests were announced today.

-- With reports from W. Zachary Malinowski and archival reports

>> Continue reading: Update: Dig for mobster's body suspended again / Video

By Tracy Breton
Journal staff writer

Former Rhode Island Atty. Gen. Dennis J. Roberts II, who prosecuted Nicholas S. Pari and Andrew F. Merola for the assassination of Joseph "Joe Onions" Scanlon 30 years ago, says he will be mighty surprised if the police find Scanlon's body buried in East Providence.

Yesterday, Pari, who is now 71 and near death, according to his lawyer, was arrested on new charges and told the state police that he had stashed Scanlon's body in East Providence, prompting an excavation that is still going on near an apartment complex in that city.

Back in 1982, after the state Supreme Court reversed the first-degree murder convictions of Pari and Merola based on errors made by their trial judge, Roberts agreed to reduce the charges against the two men because, he says, Pari agreed to disclose where they hid their victim's body, which has never been found.

In May 1982, Pari told prosecutors that after Scanlon was shot to death in a Federal Hill bar owned by Merola, the body was taken to Narragansett and dumped off shore.

In an interview with The Providence Journal today, Roberts said he believes Scanlon's remains are still under water.

"I believed it then and I believe it now frankly. I thought they took him out to sea and dumped him way out in the ocean. I think we were both convinced that that is exactly what happened," Roberts said of the prosecutor who was in charge of the case back then, Henry Gemma Jr.

Roberts said he agreed to the reduced charges not because he believed authorities would ever be able to recover the body from the ocean's bottom but because "at least there was closure" with them admitting to the killing and then saying what had happened with Scanlon's corpse.

Merola, who is now deceased, ended up pleading no contest to second-degree murder and was sentenced to serve 10 years of a 25-year term. Scanlon's girlfriend, Sandra Surprise, identified him at trial as the shooter.

Pari pleaded no contest to manslaughter and was sentenced to serve seven years of a 20-year term.

PROVIDENCE -- A 29-year-old man pleaded guilty in federal court today to making counterfeit $20 bills -- thousands of dollars in fake twenties -- and passing bogus bills at Providence Place mall, to his landlord and at drug and convenience stores.

Jesus Nater, who has past drug distribution convictions and is serving a state sentence at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston for passing counterfeit bills, admitted to agents he had made about $100,000 in counterfeit $20 bills, according to a news release today from U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente's office.

Nater entered the guilty plea before Judge Mary M. Lisi in U.S. District Court, Providence.

Prosecutor Andrew J. Reich said at the plea hearing the government could show that, between July 2007 and January 2008, Nater passed counterfeit bills at least five times.

In a hotel room Nater used, agents found sheets of uncut counterfeit bills and a copying machine that he'd used to make the bills, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

Judge Lisi scheduled an April 10 sentencing hearing.

The maximum penalty is 20 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

The Secret Service, Providence and Johnston police investigated.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

The two men killed in a plane crash yesterday in Smithfield are Ronald Tetreault, 64, of Glocester, and Robert Zoglio Jr., 43, of Richmond, their wives said today.

Although authorities have not officially released the names of the crash victims, Beth Tetreault, of Glocester, confirmed today that her husband, Ronald, was killed. Earlier today Donna J. Zoglio had confirmed that her husband, Robert, the owner of the plane, was killed.

The men were killed when the small plane they were flying crashed into woods between Clark Road and Limerock Road about a half-mile from the North Central State Airport in Smithfield at about 5 p.m. yesterday.

Tetreault was happiest flying, his widow said today, and if there's any consolation in his death, it's that he died doing something he loved.

James J. Warcup, aeronautics inspector for the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, said both men were experienced pilots.

The plane took off from T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, where the red-and-white single-engine Piper was based, to do a practice approach at the airport but lost power, Warcup said. It is unclear why the plane lost power.

Both men have been in the Rhode Island Wing of the Civil Air Patrol; Tetreault was the wing's logistics officer.

Mrs. Zoglio says her husband was flying the plane.

Zoglio was an instrument rated pilot, meaning he was capable of flying in weather conditions of low cloud ceilings and poor visibility. Zoglio and Tetreault flew about once a week so Zoglio could maintain his rating for instrument flight rules, Mrs. Tetreault said. Zoglio would essentially fly "blind," and Tetreault was his safety pilot, maintaining visibility, Mrs. Tetreault said. "I know he trusted Bob," she said.

Mrs. Zoglio declined to speak further about her husband after confirming his death this morning.

Tetreault had worked at the Airport Corporation as a senior builder, said Mrs. Tetreault, who also works there as a procurement specialist.

Tetreault loved planes and always wanted to fly, and he finally attained his pilot's license seven years ago at the North Central State Airport, Mrs. Tetreault said. She also became a pilot, at her husband's insistence. He wanted to make sure that she'd be able to take over the plane if something happened to them while they flew together.

Although they didn't own a plane, Mrs. Tetreault said they would often rent a Diamond 40 from the Warwick airport and take trips, including a favorite flight to Pittsfield, Mass., to view the Berkshires and stop in for dinner, she said.

"Ronnie was a very good pilot," Mrs. Tetreault said. "He actually loved to fly at night. He said he felt being up there at night, when it was quiet, was peaceful and serene."

The couple have been active in the Rhode Island Pilots Association, where Mrs. Tetreault was recently elected president.

While they settled in Glocester, the Tetreaults are both Pawtucket natives. They met when Tetreault moved next to her childhood home in the city's Fairlawn neighborhood, Mrs. Tetreault said. They celebrated their 35th anniversary last Tuesday, having dinner with family.

Since the crash, friends and family, pilots and members of the Civil Air Patrol have called with their condolences, she said. "Ronnie was very well liked," Mrs. Tetreault said.

-- Reported by Journal staff writer Amanda Milkovits and Maria Armental

Journal photo / Kathy Borchers
Isabel Lopez, center, a supporter of the workers, congratulates Digna Mendoza, former employee of Bianco, after the press conference in Boston on the settlement today.

By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal staff writer

BOSTON -- The owners of a New Bedford factory raided by immigration agents last year will pay $850,000 in overtime and unpaid wages to 764 employees, under terms of a settlement agreement announced today.

The settlement applies to current and former workers, including many who were detained and deported after a high-profile immigration raid at the factory owned by Michael Bianco Inc. last year.

Lawyers who filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the workers called the agreement "partial justice," and said the case speaks to the need for immigration reform to protect vulnerable workers -- documented and undocumented -- who live "in a climate of fear."

"While we are very pleased with this settlement, we are certainly aware that for many whose lives were torn apart by the raid, this is only partial justice," said Audrey Richardson, lead attorney for Greater Boston Legal Services.

GBLS, South Coast Legal Services and private attorney Philip Gordon of Boston, filed the lawsuit in May 2007, two months after federal immigration agents arrested 361 workers on federal immigration charges. The workers were stitching military gear for U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, to help fulfill the company's $230 million in government contracts.

Immigrant advocacy groups denounced the raid, saying it separated families and left children without proper care, leading to what they called "a humanitarian crisis."

Workers who filed the suit claimed that the Bianco company "systematically and intentionally violated the laws requiring time-and-a-half for overtime work" by creating a sham second corporation - Front Line Defense, Inc.

They alleged that the company avoided paying overtime by issuing two checks; one from the Bianco company for day shifts, and the second from the sham company, Front Line Defense, for night shifts.

>> Continue reading: Update: Raided New Bedford factory settles workers' suit

By Michael Stanton
Journal staff writer

Domenic Lombardi, 74, a prominent long-time mob associate and West Warwick property owner, is one of four more people to be arrested in Operation Mobbed Up.

Lombardi is accused of selling Vicodin out of a West Warwick shopping plaza that he owns. In the same plaza, authorities say, Lombardi also leases space to a drug-rehab clinic for people trying to beat their addiction to, among other drugs, Vicodin.

Lombardi was arrested last night in Florida, where he was vacationing, by Osceola County sheriffs.

"He's had an illustrious career with law enforcement,'' said Lt. Col. Steven G. O'Donnell. "It spans decades, and numerous crimes including arson and drugs. He's been a thorn in the side of law enforcement for years.''

Lombardi is currently on a suspended sentence for a previous drug conviction, which means he faces prison as a violator once he is returned to Rhode Island from Florida. A hearing is scheduled for tomorrow to determine if Lombardi will waive extradition to Rhode Island, according to O'Donnell.

The state police also arrested two others later yesterday -- Stephen Wahl, 46, of 40 Hope St., Tiverton, on racketeering and drug charges, and Devon McDonald, 24, of 183 Ocean St., Providence, for larceny.

This morning, the state police arrested Curtis Ruiz, 44, of 33 Derby St., Cranston, and charged him with racketeering, conspiracy and delivery of narcotics.

O'Donnell said that authorities are looking for one more suspect. Then they will pursue additional charges against those already arrested, which could, in turn, lead to more arrests.

View photos of the original group of arrestees, and a 2007 special report on the State of the Mob in Rhode Island.

Gritty Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia has been named Most Valuable Player of the American League for 2008. Pedroia is the 10th Red Sox player to win the award since 1931, and the first since Mo Vaughn in 1995.

Pedroia got 16 of the 28 first-place votes and easily beat out Minnesota slugger Justin Morneau. Pedroia's teammate Kevin Youkilis finished third.

The award is an amazing accomplishment for the 25-year-old Pedroia, who played his second full season with the Red Sox in 2008. After all, he struggled so badly through his first two months as a major leaguer (at the end of 2006 and the beginning of 2007) that many observers, turned off by his small stature and big swing, thought he would never amount to much. But the 5-9, 180-pound Pedroia turned things around in a big way in 2007, going on to win the American League Rookie of the Year award, batting .317 on the season.

In 2008, he was even better. He finished with a .326 batting average (second in the league), 17 home runs, 118 runs scored (first in the league) and 83 RBI. He stole 20 bases -- compared with seven in 2007 -- while being caught stealing just once. And he was the only member of the 2008 Red Sox to win a Gold Glove.

Pedroia becomes the third player in either league to win Rookie of the Year and MVP awards in consecutive seasons. Philadelphia's Ryan Howard did it in 2005 and 2006, while Baltimore's Cal Ripken Jr. did it in 1982 and 1983. Two players -- Fred Lynn of the Red Sox in 1975 and Ichiro Suzuki of the Mariners in 2001 -- won both awards in the same season.

Pedroia is also the first American League second baseman to win the MVP award since Nellie Fox of the White Sox in 1959.

Pedroia will have a conference call with the media at 3, and we'll have news from that event this afternoon on our projo SoxBlog. For now, you can read why sports writer Joe McDonald feels that Pedroia is a deserving candidate, see a gallery of photos from Pedroia's 2008 season, and tell us if Pedroia would have gotten your vote.

By John Mulligan
Journal Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- The Senate Democrats of the incoming Congress voted overwhelmingly this morning to permit independent Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman to remain in the party's caucus, despite his aggressive campaigning for the Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.

But the former Democrat from Connecticut was sanctioned for his role in the campaign. Although he will remain chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Lieberman was dismissed from the Environment and Public Works Committee and lost an influential subcommittee chairmanship on that panel.

In addition, the Democratic leadership resolution dealing with Lieberman's status contained a formal statement of the party's disapproval of his work on behalf of the Republican ticket.

"This is the beginning of a new chapter," Lieberman told reporters after the Democratic caucus for the 111th Congress voted 42 to 13 to welcome him back into the fold.

Rhode Island Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse both supported the majority resolution in a closed-door meeting of the caucus.

Whitehouse said that Lieberman's record is one of support for the Democratic leadership positions "frankly, on every issue" with the large exception of his support for President Bush's position on the war in Iraq.

Reed said one of the most important factors in this morning's action by the Senate Democratic caucus was the guidance of its most illustrious alumnus, President-elect Barack Obama.

Obama's admonition that Democrats "begin this new Congress in a spirit of cooperation, not confrontation" was the basis of this morning's action, Reed said.

Reed and Whitehouse declined to say whether Lieberman offered any words of contrition when he addressed the caucus this morning.

"It was more about a strong commitment" in support of the Obama administration and the Senate majority leadership in the future, Reed said.

By Katherine Gregg
Journal State House Bureau

In her first act since fellow Democrats endorsed her for Senate president, Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Paiva Weed today announced that she has chosen Sen. Daniel DaPonte to be the new Senate Finance chairman and will be calling an "informational caucus'' early next month on the state's massive financial problems.

The caucus has been scheduled for Dec. 4. The announcement comes a day after the Carcieri administration released a quarterly spending report that serves notice the state is headed for a potential $357.4-million deficit this year, as a result of a revenue shortfall, tens of millions of dollars in unbudgetted spending and overly optimistic budget cuts.

Her choice of DaPonte, a deputy majority whip, to replace the defeated Sen. Stephen Alves, D-West Warwick, as Senate finance chairman is likely to be controversial. DaPonte's name is mentioned in every news story about Operation Dollar Bill, the wide-ranging probe of influence peddling at the State House.

The apparent focus is a $100,000 commission that Alves and DaPonte split in 2004 while they were both still financial advisers at UBS Financial Services, for their role in "introducing" Prudential Financial to the annuity fund of Local 99 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Prudential called the payment "a one-time finders fee," but the financial consultant who oversaw the process in which Prudential was chosen to manage the fund said that neither DaPonte, nor Alves had anything to do with Prudential's hiring, which was done through a competitive bidding process.

Asked about all this last week after DaPonte's name surfaced as a candidate for Senate finance chairman, Paiva Weed said her chosen replacement as majority leader, Sen. Daniel Connors, recommended DaPonte, who now heads his own brokerage firm, Axis Financial Group. Connors is a lawyer in defeated Senate President Joseph Montalbano's law firm.

Today she issued a statement in which she called DaPonte an insightful and valued member of this chamber since 1999...[who] brings a unique skill set and considerable financial credentials to this position. He has the respect of his colleagues in this chamber, and I have every confidence that the people of Rhode Island will come to appreciate his leadership as they get to know him better."

Without addressing his role in the Prudential-IBEW controversy, she said: "He is the right person for the job during these difficult times.''

>> Continue reading: New R.I. Senate leadership team taking shape

WARWICK -- A man claiming to be armed robbed the Dunkin' Donuts coffee shop at 860 Post Road early this morning, the police said.

The police described the suspect as a white man believed to be in his 50s, approximately 6'2". He demanded money and said he had a gun, but didn't show one to the cashier, the police said. The man fled the shop in a black Nissan.

The police said the same man may have robbed a Dunkin' Donuts on Jefferson Boulevard a day earlier.

Both robberies remain under investigation.

-- Journal staff writer Lisa Vernon-Sparks

Journal photo / Bob Breidenbach

Investigators continue to work the scene of a fatal plane crash that occured last night near the North Central State Airport. The plane crashed between Clark Road and Limerock Road and claimed the lives of two.

The pilot of a single-engine plane that crashed yesterday in Smithfield killing both occupants was Robert A. Zoglio Jr., his widow, Donna J. Zoglio, confirmed this morning.

Zoglio, 43, of 207 New London Turnpike, Richmond, was the owner of record of the plane, according to a bulletin from the Federal Aviation Administration.

The state Medical Examiner's Office has yet to release the names of the pilot and passenger.

James J. Warcup, aeronautics inspector for the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, said both men were experienced pilots from Rhode Island.

The plane took off from T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, where the red-and-white single-engine Piper was based, to do a practice approach on North Central State Airport in Smithfield but lost power, Warcup said. It is unclear why the plane lost power.

The plane crashed about 5 p.m. yesterday roughly a half-mile southeast of the runway at North Central State Airport. The two were pronounced dead at the scene.

-- With staff and Associated Press reports

By Bruce Landis
Journal staff writer

PROVIDENCE -- Governor Carcieri this morning admitted to his fourth violation of the state Ethics Code, agreeing to pay a $2,500 fine in connection with his hiring of his niece in 2003.

The niece, Stephanie Accaputo, had worked on Carcieri's successful 2002 campaign for his first term as governor. Carcieri hired her for a job in his Office of Constituent Affairs in the Office of the Governor.

She quit Friday, the governor's office said.

Carcieri released a statement saying that "the governor did not intend to violate the Code of Ethics" but admitting that he did so after the commission "clarified" the code's nepotism provisions in 2007.

BOSTON (AP) -- The former owners of a New Bedford, Mass., leather goods factory raided last year by immigration agents will pay $850,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by workers who claimed the company violated various wage laws, attorneys for the former employees said today.

Michael Bianco Inc. will pay 764 former employees unpaid wages and overtime pay to settle the lawsuit filed in May 2007, which alleged the company failed to pay workers for overtime and unfairly deducted pay from workers' pay checks.

In March 2007, immigration agents raided Michael Bianco and arrested 361 workers, mostly women from Central America, on federal immigration charges. Earlier this month, company owner Francesco Insolia pleaded guilty to harboring and concealing illegal immigrants.
Immigrant advocates criticized the raid for separating families and leaving children without proper care. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the raid was properly handled.

According to the lawsuit, Bianco tried to avoid paying overtime by making it appear workers were being paid by two separate companies.

>> Continue reading: New Bedford factory raided by ICE settles workers' suit

LITTLE COMPTON -- Little Compton's Stone House will be featured in an upcoming segment of "Renovation Nation," which airs on Discovery Channel network's Planet Green channel.

"Renovation Nation" highlights nationwide, green construction projects.

Host Steve Thomas, best known for his years on "This Old House," and Stone House owners Craig Pishotti and Zachary Miller will be on hand Thursday and Friday to film the renovation of the 1854 hotel set to open for the 2009 season.

The Stone House, 122 Sakonnet Point Rd., was listed this year on the National Register of Historic Places.

AAA is forecasting the first decline in Thanksgiving travel since 2002.

About 41 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home Thanksgiving weekend, a decrease of 1.4 percent, or 600,000 travelers, from last year's total of 41.6 million, according to estimates by AAA Southern New England.

"The overall state of the economy continues to present real challenges for some Americans looking to travel this Thanksgiving," said Lloyd P. Albert, AAA Southern New England's senior vice president of public and government affairs and new business development. "However, the desire to spend time with family, combined with significantly lower gasoline prices than earlier this year, will provide a strong impetus for many Americans to travel this holiday season."

Gas prices in Rhode Island have dropped for nine straight weeks, falling to an average of $2.109 yesterday, according to AAA. The price peaked above the $4 mark over the summer.

A year ago, the average price here was $3.079.

Thanksgiving would be the fourth travel holiday in a row, after Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day, with a year-to-year decline in the number of travelers, according to AAA.

>> Continue reading: AAA: Fewer travelers will hit the road for Thanksgiving

PROVINCETOWN, Mass. (AP) -- A Provincetown volunteer firefighter has been cited for totaling an expensive fire truck he was driving during a test.

The police say 21-year-old Elias Martinez was cited yesterday for speeding, failure to use caution at an intersection and operating a vehicle negligently.

Investigators say Martinez was driving the truck at around 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 9 when the truck's front wheel hit a curb and flipped over about four times. Martinez and a female passenger were treated at a hospital for minor injuries.

The town's only ladder truck was bought used in 1995 for $5,000, but the town spent $165,000 to have it specially outfitted to deal with the town's narrow streets.

Officials say they hope to use $350,000 in insurance money to replace the truck.

(Information from: Cape Cod Times, http://www.capecodonline.com )

PROVIDENCE -- Expect major delays around the intersection of I-95 and I-195.

What you'll find is residual traffic from overnight lane closures and road work, said a spokesman for the state Department of Transportation.

The DOT closed overnight two southbound lanes on I-95, between Eddy Streets and Thurbers Avenue for road work. The lanes reopened at 7:45 a.m., said spokesman Charles St. Martin.

The construction will continue all through this week but should not impact the morning commute, St. Martin said. Today's delay was caused by equipment breakdown.

The delay affected the commute south on I-95 and I-195 around Providence.

Motorists approaching the I-Way connector should also expect to find rough pavement, which is also contributing to the traffic jams. The top layer has been ground up for repaving as the DOT works on the relocation of the Exit 20 ramp southbound, currently accessible from the left lanes. The new ramp will be accessible from the right lanes and is currently scheduled to open in December.

PROVIDENCE -- The Rhode Island Board of Elections today will recount the ballots on the Portsmouth and Smithfield town council races.

The Portsmouth recount is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. and the Smithfield one at 1 p.m.

The recounts are open to the public and will be done in the Board of Elections' headquarters, 50 Branch Ave., Providence.

Five other local races were recounted yesterday, including that of Tiverton town treasurer and Burrillville School Committee. Those races are expected to be decided next week.