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April 13, 2006

Amtrak to restore East Coast service tomorrow

All Amtrak service between the Northeast and Florida will be restored tomorrow, the railroad said late this afternoon.

A bridge owned by CSX Transportation, 10 miles north of Selma, N.C., has been repaired, allowing the railroad to reopen to passenger trains tomorrow.

A routine inspection of the bridge by CSX had led to its closure yesterday to make needed repairs. Amtrak had canceled all service south of Richmond, Va., because of the bridge closure.

Amtrak said it regrets the service disruption and that it worked closely with CSX Transportation to restore service in time for the Easter holiday weekend.

Check current Amtrak schedules ...

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 6:48 PM | Comment

Hope High students to help build Habitat house in Fla.

PROVIDENCE -- Five Hope High School students will travel to Lee, Fla., this Sunday to build a house for Habitat for Humanity.

The teens are members of the Leadership Academy at Hope, and their English teacher, Michaela Keegan, said she believes that the best way to teach teenagers how to become leaders is to get them out of the classroom.

Several of the students, all seniors, said they were on the verge of dropping out before this year, when the large urban high school broke into three smaller learning academies, hired new teachers and brought in a new team of principals.

"Last year, I cut school every day,'' said German Mendez, 18. "No one wanted to help. This year, they do. It changed my mentality. I know that I'm somebody now.''

Keegan hopes to expand the community service component next year by getting students involved in their own neighborhoods, where they can see what their efforts can accomplish.

-- Journal education writer Linda Borg

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 6:36 PM | Comment

Photo: High fives for PawSox

Journal photo / Kathy Borchers
The Pawtucket Red Sox' Ron Calloway gets high fives all around as he returns to the dugout after a home run this afternoon. The PawSox shut out the Rochester Red Wings, 5-0, at the McCoy Stadium outing.

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 5:36 PM | Comment

Photo: Steel wall picks up slack at this dam

Journal photo / Bill Murphy

State and local officials traveled to the Slack Reservoir Dam in Greenville this morning to mark repair work at the structure. During a press conference, the final steel sheet was driven into place to complete a retaining wall designed to reduce water seepage.

Repairs had been delayed for a decade as homeowners who own the dam struggled to raise the money to fix it.

The Slack Reservoir Dam was one of five high-hazard dams that state officials declared unsafe. Dams are classified as high hazard if their failure could result in the loss of life or a significant amount of property.

Because much of the repairs are complete, the Department of Environmental Management is removing the Slack Reservoir Dam from its unsafe list.

The dam separates the towns of Johnston and Smithfield.

-- With Associated Press reports

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 5:28 PM | Comment

Weather alert: Thunderstorms moving in, hail possible

The National Weather Service's Doppler radar is now indicating thunderstorms in northern Rhode Island with the potential to produce small hail.

Just before 5 p.m., the storms were along a line from North Providence Coventry, moving east at 30 mph. The thunderstorms will be near Pawtucket, Providence and East Providence around 5 p.m.; Warwick, East Greenwich, Barrington and Rehoboth, Mass., around 5: 10 p.m., and Warren and Dighton, Mass., around 5:20 p.m.

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 5:01 PM | Comment

Carcieri demands Beacon fire its president

PROVIDENCE -- Governor Carcieri today demanded that the Board of Directors of Beacon Mutual Insurance fire its president and chief executive officer, Joseph A. Solomon.

The governor's call comes one day after a review found instances of "abuse, misjudgment and seriously flawed operating systems" within the company created by the state legislature in the early 1990s to provide insurance at the "lowest possible price" to the state's businesses for the care of sick or injured workers.

Carcieri also called for the termination of Beacon's vice president for underwriting, David Clark, and said that board members who have presided over the alleged mismanagement since 1994 should resign.

"Whether or not these directors were aware of the abuse and mismanagement detailed in the Almond Ad Hoc Committee report is irrelevant. As directors for over a decade, they were either complicit in the abuse or they were incompetent in not stopping it," the governor charged in a letter to the board released today.

The governor also said that any board members "who are personally implicated or who represent policy holders implicated in any of the abuse" detailed in the report must resign.

Carcieri says he plans to name new gubernatorial board members.

The report, commissioned by Beacon's board of directors in February and released yesterday, paints a damning portrait of Rhode Island's dominant workers' compensation insurer.

It also comes at a time when Carcieri and Beacon's political operatives are battling over Beacon-backed legislation that would reduce the governor's authority to appoint board members.

The Beacon board is scheduled to meet tomorrow morning.

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 4:20 PM | Comment

Mobster St. Laurent indicted on extortion charges

PROVIDENCE -- Mobster Anthony "The Saint'' St. Laurent Sr. has been indicted on felony charges that he conspired to extort payments from two men.

St. Laurent, 64, pleaded not guilty during his arraignment this afternoon in U.S. District Court, Providence, and was ordered held without bail by U.S. Magistrate Judge David L. Martin.

"The indictment alleges that, in March and April, St. Laurent and others conspired to use extortionate means to collect extensions of credit from two men and to punish them for the non-repayment of those extensions of credit," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a press release.

The names of the two men have not been released.

St. Laurent, a made member of the Patriarca crime family, was arrested about 7 a.m. today by FBI agents and state police detectives at his home at 2 Rotary Drive, in Johnston.

-- Journal staff writer W. Zachary Malinowski

The authorities are familiar with the ranch house St. Laurent shares with his wife, Dorothy. It has been the site of arrests, searches and surveillance over the past 30 years. St. Laurent was recently released from a federal prison in Massachusetts.

His lawyer asked Martin to put St. Laurent on home confinement pending trial because of a medical condition.

-- Journal staff writer W. Zachary Malinowski.

Posted by Jack Perry at 3:18 PM | Comment

Car collides with police cruiser in E. Greenwich

EAST GREENWICH -- The police today released the details of an overnight crash in which a local man collided with a police cruiser.

Joseph J. Kubiskey, 52, of 186 Marlborough St., was arrested late last night immediately after the accident. After a field sobriety test, he was charged with one count of driving under the influence and one count of refusal to submit to a chemical test.

According to local police, Kubiskey was driving his Nissan Pathfinder south on Route 1 when he made a U-turn into the northbound lane. He struck an East Greenwich police cruiser head on, then bounced off a curb and hit another car in the southbound lane.

None of the drivers required medical attention, according to the police.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Barbara Polichetti

Posted by Steve Peoples at 2:08 PM | Comment

Police sweep nets 7 on gambling, drug charges

Seven Rhode Island men have been arrested on illegal gambling and drug-related charges after a two-month investigation led to police interception in a 30-day period of more than $400,000 in illegal gambling wagers on the NCAA basketball tournament, NBA basketball, horse racing and Major League baseball, the state police announced today.

Fanning out across the state to make the arrests yesterday afternoon were state, Providence and Pawtucket police and members of the Federal Bureau of Investigations. The arrests were the result of a court-authorized wire interception investigation by members of the State Police Intelligence Unit, the state Attorney General’s Office, Providence and Pawtucket police and the FBI.

Police will hold a news conference about the arrests at state police headquarters today at 3:30 p.m.

Police executed five court-authorized search warrants relating to the investigation and seized U.S. currency, heroin, marijuana, a computer, assorted gambling ledgers and three vehicles, according to State Police Maj. Steven G. O’Donnell.

The following men were arrested and have been arraigned at state police headquarters by Justice of the Peace Richard Finnegan:

Louis Melucci, 60, of 23 Greene St., Pawtucket, is charged with violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), organized criminal gambling, bookmaking, possession of heroin and conspiracy to commit organized criminal gambling.

Kirk D. Andrews, 61, of 49 Blueridge Drive, West Greenwich, is charged with RICO, organized criminal gambling, bookmaking and conspiracy to commit organized criminal gambling.

Jeffrey Hannon, 57, of 39 Greene St., Pawtucket, is charged with possession of heroin.

Charles Lillibridge, 60, of 300 Lambert Lind Highway, Warwick, is charged with RICO, organized criminal gambling, bookmaking, conspiracy to conduct organized criminal gambling and possession of marijuana.

John P. Kelly, 46, of 111 Pond Street (#1), Pawtucket, is charged with RICO, organized criminal gambling, bookmaking and conspiracy to conduct organized criminal gambling.

Antonio Pereira, 38, of 412 Smithfield Ave. (Apt. #2), Pawtucket, is charged with RICO, organized criminal gambling, bookmaking and conspiracy to commit organized criminal gambling.

Leonard E. Palizza, 27, of 277 Locust Glen Drive, Cranston, is charged with RICO, organized criminal gambling and bookmaking.

All were released on $20,000 personal recognizance except for Melucci, who was ordered held without bail due to a bail violation, according to state police.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 1:23 PM | Comment

Police probe death of J&W student at Vt. college

POULTNEY, Vt. -- Vermont State Police are trying to determine the cause of death of a Johnson & Wales University freshman who died while visiting Green Mountain College.

Andrew Finiella of Cross River, N.Y., was found unconscious in a dormitory by a friend last Friday. Paramedics were unable to save him.

Finiella apparently had been drinking, but police are not sure if alcohol consumption led to his death.

Finiella was pursuing an associate’s degree in business administration at Johnson & Wales, public relations director Miriam Weinstein said this morning.

-- The Associated Press and staff reports

Johnson & Wales has provided counseling for students, faculty and anyone affected by Finiella’s death, Weinstein said. She said privacy regulations prevented her from saying more about the student.

“The university is deeply sorry about this loss, and we’ve reached out to the family,” Weinstein said.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 12:50 PM | Comment

Apartment fire displaces 8 in Providence / Updated

Journal photo / Mary Murphy

Providence firefighters chop a hole in the roof of a three-story apartment building at 154 Delaine St., near Manton Avenue in Olneyville, to let out smoke and heat so that firefighters inside could put water on the fire.

PROVIDENCE -- A fire this morning at an apartment building in Olneyville left six adults and two children homeless, prompting a call to the Red Cross for assistance, Asst. Fire Chief Mark S. Pare said.

Damage was confined to the rear of the building at 154 Delaine St., but all three apartments sustained smoke and water damage, Pare said. Firefighters extinguished the blaze within about a half hour.

Firefighters responding to the blaze were delayed briefly when the hydrant at Appleton and Delaine didn’t work, Pare said. They had to use the next closest hydrant, at Manton and Delaine.

With more than 3,000 hydrants in the city, the department is in the midst of its annual April check of how the hydrants have fared through the winter, Pare said.

In the case of a broken hydrant, such as today’s, the department alerts the Providence Water Supply Board, Pare said. It will likely be fixed within 24 hours, he said.

The blaze was reported shortly after 9 a.m.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 10:38 AM | Comment

No Amtrak service to Florida

If you were heading south today on Amtrak for the Easter weekend or school vacation week, think again.

Amtrak has canceled all service south of Richmond, Va., because a North Carolina bridge has been closed until at least tomorrow, spokesman Clifford Black said. Ten trains are canceled – five northbound and five southbound.

People traveling from New England can still get as far as Richmond, Va., but that’s it for now, Black said. Anyone trying to book travel online to Florida or other points south of Richmond would be told that no seats are available, Black said.

Amtrak does not own the tracks that run over the closed bridge, which is in Kenly, N.C., Black said. A freight railroad company that owns those tracks, CSX, closed the bridge yesterday afternoon when a routine inspection revealed damage deemed bad enough to stop all train service over the bridge, Black said.

“CSX has told us that it will be at least Friday … ” Black said, before the bridge reopens. “We regret the inconvenience to our passengers and hope to get service back.”

Black described Amtrak as a “tenant” on those tracks, stressing that the company does not own the tracks that have been closed.

Passengers can return previously purchased tickets for a refund or use them for a later travel date, Black said.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 8:40 AM | Comment

Carcieri to review improvements to Johnston dam

PROVIDENCE -- Governor Carcieri and other Rhode Island officials this morning plan to review improvements at a weakening dam in Johnston that authorities are trying to fix.

Carcieri and other state officials have emphasized dam safety since heavy rain this fall sent rivers and streams over their banks and raised questions about whether some dams in the region would break.

At the State House, a bill requiring dam owners to pay for emergency repairs and planning is one step closer to becoming law.

The Senate's Environment and Agriculture Committee has voted to send the legislation to their Senate colleagues for a full vote.

If adopted, the bill would allow state authorities to make emergency repairs to dams at risk of failing -- and later bill the property owners for the work. The legislation would also require some dam owners to file emergency plans with the state.

Governor Carcieri proposed the rules after a dam in Taunton, Mass., buckled this fall and threatened to break.

-- The Associated Press and staff reports

Posted by Kate Bramson at 7:24 AM | Comment

Showers and potential hail today

Don’t forget your umbrella today. There’s a 40 percent chance of showers, with thunderstorms possible after 3 p.m., according to the National Weather Service.

Some of today’s storms could produce gusty winds and small hail this afternoon.

Highs today should be in the upper 60s. Tonight, expect it to be mostly cloudy with temps in the upper 40s.

Check projo.com for weather forecasts throughout the day.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 7:00 AM | Comment