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September 14, 2006

R.I. food bank director leaving for new post

The executive director of the Rhode Island Community Food Bank has resigned to accept a position with an international hunger relief organization.

Bernie Beaudreau had led the food bank for 11 years. He will take a senior position with the Chicago-based Global FoodBanking Network.

"Bernie has accomplished a great deal working towards the elimination of hunger in our state and now returns his talents, experience and expertise to the international arena," said Douglas Johnson, the president of the food bank's board of directors.

The food bank has appointed Rosie Connors, a senior employee with the organization, to serve as interim executive director effective Oct. 1.

Posted by Steve Peoples at 6:59 PM | Comment

Sentencing tomorrow for nursing home operators

PROVIDENCE -- Former nursing home operator Antonio L. Giordano and his longtime chief financial officer, John J. Montecalvo, are scheduled to be sentenced in U.S. District Court tomorrow morning on federal equity skimming charges.

Giordano and Montecalvo pleaded guilty to the felony charges in June, admitting to skimming $780,539 from the defunct Hillside Health Center in Providence, the former Coventry Health Center and Mount St. Francis Health Center in Woonsocket, even when the nursing homes were in default of their multimillion-dollar federal mortgages or operating in the red.

The men also are each facing 45 state charges related to alleged mismanagement of the nursing home and its finances. They are set to be arraigned on the state charges Wednesday.

Tomorrow's sentencing is scheduled for 11 a.m. before Judge Mary M. Lisi in Courtroom 1 of the federal courthouse on Kennedy Plaza.

Posted by Steve Peoples at 5:58 PM | Comment

Chafee or Whitehouse? State AFL-CIO to vote tonight

PROVIDENCE -- The state's largest labor union will vote tonight on which U.S. Senate candidate to endorse, a move that could give the moderate Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee or his Democratic challenger Sheldon Whitehouse a major boost less than two months before the election.

Labor leaders, who typically endorse the Democratic candidates, have acknowledged that it's a tough call.

The meeting of the state chapter of the AFL-CIO will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the Rhode Island Convention Center. The chapter has 80,000 members, who could offer either candidate the potential of a large block of voters, financial support or campaign volunteers.

Chafee lobbied labor leaders yesterday for the endorsement. Chafee has harvested more labor money than any other Republican in the U.S. Senate.

Union members could vote to endorse either candidate, or they could vote to endorse neither. An endorsement requires a two-thirds majority vote.

Should support fail to reach that percentage -- which would be a small victory for Chafee -- neither candidate would have the official endorsement.

Get more background in today's Journal story.

Posted by Steve Peoples at 5:47 PM | Comment

Kennedy's first TV campaign ad acknowledges troubles

In the first television advertising spot of his reelection campaign, U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy makes reference to his May car accident and subsequent visit to a Minnesota substance abuse clinic.

The 30-second spot, which began running on Rhode Island television stations today; shows Kennedy sitting down in a suit and tie.

"It's not a secret it has been a challenging year for me," says the Rhode Island Democrat, who is a scion of the country's most famous political family. "And I'm grateful for the support you have shown me.''

The ad goes on to say that Kennedy is fighting to stop price gouging by oil companies and to make college tuition tax deductible.

"I will never stop fighting for you,'' Kennedy says at the end of the spot.

Extra: An exclusive Journal interview with Kennedy last May.

-- Journal staff writer Scott MacKay

Posted by Steve Peoples at 5:40 PM | Comment

Update: Celona recounts pressure on fellow legislator

PROVIDENCE -- As he returned to the stand this afternoon, former state Sen. John Celona recounted his efforts to pressure Rep. Joanne Giannini over her sponsorship of two bills opposed by Roger Wiliams Medical Center.

One would have required nonprofits, like Roger Williams, to make payments in lieu of taxes to the City of Providence, a measure favored by then-Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr.

Another called for the creation of a statewide Cancer Council, to be run by a former Roger Williams doctor whom Celona said Urciuoli and Driscoll disliked. They also opposed the council because it would have undercut Roger Williams’s own cancer unit, Celona testified.

Celona was testifying for the second consecutive day as a prosecution witness in the federal corruption case against the medical center trial.

Asst. U.S. Atty. Luis Matos introduced a raft of documents, many of them memos written by Celona to Urciuoli or Driscoll, documenting the senator’s efforts.

In one, in 1999, Driscoll writes Celona: "Need you to subtly check on Cancer Commission bill’’ – including who supports it.

Celona testified that Driscoll also told him to talk to Giannini, a Providence Democrat whose legislative district included Roger Williams, and deliver a message: "She should think before she signs a bill affecting people or a facility in her district . . . It could hurt her on Election Day.’’

Celona also described a luncheon meeting that he arranged and attended the following year with Driscoll and Giannini, at the Old Canteen in Providence. In that meeting, Celona said, he reiterated that Giannini should "look, listen and read legislation before she signs it.’’ And Driscoll, he said, told the representative that Roger Williams employed a lot of people who lived in her district and voted.

The day ended with the government still questioning Celona. It's not clear when the defense will get its turn to begin its cross-examination.

-- Journal staff writer Mike Stanton

Celona tells of using Assembly position to help hospital
Posted 1:20 p.m.

PROVIDENCE -- For the second consecutive day, former state Sen. John Celona took the witness stand as a prosecution witness, admitting he used his elected position to help a hospital and nursing home that was paying him tens of thousands of dollars.

Celona testified regarding his efforts on behalf of Roger Williams Medical Center, including bills that he sought to influence at the hospital’s direction and efforts to persuade town officials in North Providence and East Providence to increase their rescue runs to the hospital.

Shortly after going on the payroll as a consultant at the Village at Elmhurst in early 1998, Celona said that then-hospital vice-president Frances P. Driscoll asked him to try and kill a bill that would have been "detrimental" to the assisted-living center. The legislation, sponsored by then-Rep. Vincent Mesolella, would have limited Alzheimer’s treatment units to licensed nursing homes; the Village at Elmhurst had an Alzheimer’s unit.

Celona testified that he spoke to Mesolella, who said that he had introduced the bill on behalf of the nursing-home industry but had no personal feelings about it.

"I haven’t voted on the merits in 16 years and I’m not going to start now,’’ Celona quoted Mesolella as telling him.

Celona also testified that Driscoll and Robert A. Urciuoli, then the president of Roger Williams, both asked him to intervene to help the hospital get "its fair share" of rescue runs. He explained that patients in non-life-threatening situations were not always having their wishes granted to be taken to Roger Williams, and that it cost the hospital $5,000 for every transport that went elsewhere.

"Bob told me to report to Fran and try and resolve this,’’ testified Celona, who said that he then met with officials in North Providence and East Providence.

The prosecution asserts that Urciuoli, Driscoll and Peter J. Sangermano Jr. put Celona on the payroll of The Village at Elmhurst when his real job was using his public office to do the hospital's bidding.

Celona pleaded guilty last year to federal fraud charges. He has admitted being paid more than $260,000 to secretly advance the medical center's legislative interests.

Although he was listed as a consultant to the Village at Elmhurst, a Roger Williams affiliate, Celona said that Driscoll was his boss and that she frequently directed him to get involved in legislation and other matters of interest to the hospital.

For instance, Celona testified, Driscoll told him to work to kill a 1998 bill that would have prevented Roger Williams from keeping its same board of directors if it were sold and converted from a nonprofit to a for-profit hospital. Urciuoli also told him that he was against the bill, testified Celona.

Asst. U.S. Atty. Luis Matos introduced a number of documents, including faxes from Celona to Driscoll and Urciuoli documenting his efforts on various matters.

Read about Celona's testimony yesterday in today's Journal story.

-- Journal staff writer Mike Stanton

Posted by Steve Peoples at 5:32 PM | Comment

Landlord charged with killing tenant's puppy

PROVIDENCE -- A landlord, allegedly peeved that a tenant had a forbidden pet, appeared in court today to answer charges that he clubbed to death a two-month-old puppy.

Junior A. Guerrero, the 27-year-old landlord, allegedly dragged the puppy to the rear of a house at 341-343 Plain St., South Providence, last night and smashed it with a baseball bat and carried it away in a plastic bag.

The suspect, according to the police, later returned and tried to use water to clean the blood from the attack that remained on a concrete surface. The police, who were called to the scene at about 6:30 p.m. yesterday, said an apparent bloodstain was still visible, however.

After the police broadcast an alert for the suspect, Patrolman Jeremy Doucette found him in a black vehicle parked at the curb at Broad and Calla streets in Washington Park.

The puppy, a black Labrador mix named Soldier, was found later, but the location was not immediately available.

-- Journal staff writer Gregory Smith

Soldier underwent a necropsy at Ocean State Veterinarian Services, where it was determined that the puppy had been in good health but that it had suffered major blunt trauma to both sides of its head, according to Peter Brown, director of the Police Department animal control division. Brown said the police were looking for the bat.

Guerrero, of 341 Plain St., was held overnight at headquarters and brought before District Court Chief Judge Albert E. DeRobbio on two charges today: cruelty to animals, a felony, and possession of marijuana, a misdemeanor.

DeRobbio set surety bond of $25,000, which was posted, and Guerrero was released pending a hearing Sept. 28 in Superior Court on the determination of his legal counsel.

Brown said the preliminary evidence is that Guerrero was displeased because a tenant at the 341-343 Plain Street address was not supposed to have a pet. The police withheld the identities of the tenant and three witnesses.

He said people who are cruel to animals frequently get unduly light punishment and that in this case he hopes that if there is a conviction that the culprit receives an appropriately severe punishment.

Posted by Steve Peoples at 4:42 PM | Comment

Brown professor helps find ancient writing

A team including a Brown University anthropologist have found what could be the earliest known writing in North and South America.

It appears on an ancient slab of green stone inscribed with insects, ears of corn, fish and other symbols. No one has deciphered the message.

Brown University anthropologist Stephen Houston says the stone represents the first evidence of writing in the New World. His team published details about the tablet's discovery this week in a scientific journal.

The ancient writer, probably part of the Olmec civilization, etched the symbols about 2,900 years ago.

Villagers in Mexico found the tablet sometime before 1999, while quarrying an ancient Olmec mound for road-building material.

Full story...

-- The Associated Press

Posted by Steve Peoples at 4:00 PM | Comment

Waterfront park design finalists to be announced

PROVIDENCE -- Two finalists will be named next week in a $10,000 contest to design a new downtown Providence waterfront park.

Mayor Cicilline said today that the finalists in the contest will be announced Wednesday at 10 p.m. at the Roger Williams Park Casino.

In all, 16 teams submitted designs for a park to be built on 8 acres of public land that will become available after the relocation of Route 195.

An 11-member committee made up of business leaders, artists, parents, environmental advocates and design experts narrowed the field to two. A public comment period will follow next week's announcement, giving residents an opportunity to react to the proposed designs.

They will be viewable online at the city's Web site and at the Roger Williams Park Casino on several occasions:

-- Wednesday, September 20, 11a.m. until 8 p.m.
-- Thursday, September 21, 8:30 a.m. until 8 p.m.
-- Friday, September 22, 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.
-- Monday, September 25, 8:30 a.m. until 8 p.m.

Each finalist will receive $1,000, while the winning team gets $10,000. The winning design will constructed by the state Department of Transportation.

Posted by Steve Peoples at 3:39 PM | Comment

Update: R.I. native honored at Holocaust Memorial / Photos

AP photo / Linda Spillers
Martha Sharp Joukowsy, right, lights a candle at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. where her parents were honored today for their wartime service. Her husband, Artemis, and Nesse Godin, a Holocaust surviver, joined her today.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – About 75 people gathered here today to posthumously honor Providence native Martha Sharp and her former husband, Waitstill Sharp of Boston, for journeying to Europe in 1939 and taking bold risks to help Jews and other targeted people find refuge from the Nazis.

The two are among just three Americans honored with a plaque on the Rescuers Wall at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s permanent exhibition.

Members of the Sharp family, including grandson Artemis Joukowsky III, had a private viewing at the museum this morning of the small plaque installed there. U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., and U.S. Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., also attended the public ceremony today.

“This is not just a history lesson today,” said McGovern, who has actively worked in Congress to end the genocide in Darfur. “We need to do more than just praise the heroics of people like the Sharps. We need to do more than say, ‘Never again.’”

The Sharps are the second and third Americans – and Martha is the only American woman – honored by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial as “the Righteous Among Nations” for non-Jews who saved Jews. Altogether, about 20,000 non-Jews have received the honor.

Unitarian Universal Service Committee photo
Martha and Waitstill Sharp board a boat in New York City bound for Europe in 1939. They helped thousands of Jews escape the Nazis while in Czechoslovakia and France.

Extra: Learn more about the Sharps in projo.com's multimedia report on the couple, narrated by Journal columnist Mark Patinkin.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer John E. Mulligan

Posted by Kate Bramson at 3:30 PM | Comment

Update: Bus touting casino plan rolls out / Photo

Journal photo / Kris Craig
Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas departs from the bus this afternoon, before a rally of supporters in downtown Providence.

PROVIDENCE -- The campaign to bring a casino to West Warwick rolled out its latest promotional vehicle this afternoon -- a blue bus emblazoned with a call to voters to approve a casino question this November .

Narragansett Indian Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas and other casino supporters plan to tour several cities and towns over the next five weeks aboard the 40-foot bus adorned with the phrase: "Support the Narragansett Indian Casino -- Vote Yes on Question 1."

Voters will be asked in November whether to change the state Constitution to allow the gambling facility in West Warwick, to be owned by the Narragansetts and their partner, Harrah's Entertainment Co.

Posted by Steve Peoples at 3:26 PM | Comment

Hundreds pay respects at Seekonk Marine's funeral / Photo

Journal photo / Bob Thayer
Honorary pall bearers from the U.S. Marine Corps carry the casket of Lance Cpl. Eric Valdepeñas as Bishop Hendricken High students look on at the cathedral today.

PROVIDENCE -- Eric Valdepeñas's mother, father and six brothers and sisters were among the hundreds who gathered inside the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul today to say goodbye to the 21-year-old Marine lance corporal who died in Iraq last week.

The service was heavily attended by representatives from Bishop Hendricken High School in Warwick, where Valdepeñas was an honors student and all-state lacrosse player. The Hendricken lacrosse team lined the stairway leading into the cathedral as Valdepeñas's flag-draped coffin was brought in by six Marines.

It was a formal, somber ceremony.

The Rev. Marcel Taillon, the chaplain at Bishop Hendricken, said there were two mottos that Valdepeñas lived his life by. The first was the Marines' motto, Semper Fidelis, which means "always faithful" in Latin.

"That embodied Eric's goodness," Taillon told the large crowd inside the church. "He was always faithful to God, and to family and to friends."

The second was Hendricken's motto: "Live Jesus in our hearts forever."

Valdepeñas's mother told Taillon that her son "lived the prayer," Taillon said. "She said she saw Jesus in his eyes."

Valdepeñas, who lived in Seekonk, Mass., was a machine gunner in the the 1st Battalion, 25th Marines, weapons company. He was in his sophomore year at the University of Massachusetts Amherst when his reserve unit was sent to Iraq.

-- projo.com staff writer Steve Peoples with reports from Journal staff writer Alex Kuffner

Posted by Steve Peoples at 2:50 PM | Comment

Sen. Reed to take questions about the country's future

People with questions or concerns about the future of the country can chat with U.S. Sen. Jack Reed this week in an on-line discussion.

The discussion, to be co-hosted by PBS and Yahoo News!, will be featured tomorrow on PBS' "Generation Next," a series on today's 16-to-25 year olds and what makes them different from their predecessors. The program will be hosted by Judy Woodruff.

Those interested in submitting a question to Reed can click here.

Posted by Steve Peoples at 1:11 PM | Comment

Update: Hexagon to open $13M facility at Quonset / Photo

Journal photo / Frieda Squires
The new Hexagon Metrology plant in North Kingstown sprawls over 58,000 square feet, or almost 1 1/2 acres.

NORTH KINGSTOWN -- Hexagon Metrology North America will unveil its new $13-million, 58,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and corporate headquarters at a ceremony this morning in the Quonset Point Business Park.

The company, which acquired Brown & Sharpe and distributes its brand-name products, announced plans to move to Connecticut last year before brokering a deal with the town and state to stay in the area.

The company employs about 255 people and has been in North Kingstown since the mid-1960s.

The industrial measuring-tools manufacturer will receive a $320,000 tax break over the next 10 years, though the tax revenue on the new facilities are expected to bring the town $630,000 in tax revenue over the next 10 years, even with the tax break, according to town officials.

"Hexagon Metrology serves segments of the measurement and inspection marketplace worldwide, so it is a premier business for Rhode Island now and in the future,” Governor Carcieri said in a statement.

-- projo.com staff writer Steve Peoples

Posted by Steve Peoples at 12:56 PM | Comment

Health Department: Powder was not anthrax, ricin

PROVIDENCE – Preliminary test results for a “light, powdery substance” delivered to 42 Oriental St. which caused itchy, rash-like symptoms came up negative for anthrax and ricin.

The state Health Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation are still culturing the samples and more tests are pending, health department spokeswoman Maria Wah-Fitta said this morning.

Providence rescue crews took three people to Rhode Island Hospital yesterday after a woman at 42 Oriental St. opened a piece of mail, discovered a “light, powdery substance” in it and started to get an itch, according to James Taylor, chief of communications for the Providence Fire Department.

After the health department’s laboratory received a specimen for testing last night, lab employees “worked through the night,” Wah-Fitta said today.

The health department’s responsibility is to determine if the substance poses any danger to public health, Wah-Fitta said. It’s typical for the department to work with the FBI when investigating such a report, she said.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

Posted by Kate Bramson at 10:26 AM | Comment

Funeral today for Hendricken grad killed in Iraq

PROVIDENCE – The funeral for Marine Lance Cpl. Eric P. Valdepeñas of Seekonk, Mass., who was killed Sept. 4 while on patrol in Iraq, is this morning at 11 at the Cathedral of Saints Peter & Paul, at One Cathedral Square in Providence. Burial will be private.

The youngest of eight children, Valdepeñas was a 2003 graduate of Bishop Hendricken High School in Warwick. He was in his sophomore year at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst when his reserve unit -- the 1st Battalion, 25th Marines, weapons company -- was called up in December. They were deployed to Iraq in March.

Governor Carcieri is planning to attend this morning's funeral Mass.

The family has asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to the Lance Cpl. Eric P. Valdepeñas Memorial Scholarship Fund at Bishop Hendricken High School, 2615 Warwick Avenue, Warwick, RI 02889.

Click here to post a tribute to Eric P. Valdepeñas.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 8:54 AM | Comment

Early morning fire in Providence

PROVIDENCE – Firefighters have just gotten a blaze in a vacant house under control at 139 Pumgansett Drive.

Called to the scene at 6:30 a.m., crews battled the fire from the outside because the roof had collapsed and it was too dangerous for them to be in the building, according to James Taylor, chief of communications for the Providence Fire Department.

When they arrived on scene, crews worried initially that a house next door was close to the fully involved fire and could catch, but the fire has not spread and crews said they would be able to prevent that, Taylor said.

The fire was under control at 6:56 a.m.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 7:30 AM | Comment

Things are looking wet

The sun will come out ... Sunday. And Monday, Monday looks great. So much for the last weekend of summer.

Here are the numbers: there's an 80 percent chance of rain today; that increases to 90 percent tonight. Friday will be a 50-50 proposition.

Saturday may be dry and there may be some sun by the end of the weekend.

Saturday's Waterfire could get wet. But conditions do look pretty good for the CVS/pharmacy Downtown 5k.

Posted by Peter Phipps at 7:05 AM | Comment