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June 1, 2007

Jazz, auditions enhance tonight's WaterFire

PROVIDENCE -- The season's second WaterFire is tonight, and there should be lots to do at this one. You can even audition for a role.

The event begins at 8:15 p.m., sunset, and goes to 1 a.m. Tonight's is sponsored by Providence Place and the Rhode Island School of Design, which holds its commencement tomorrow.

Scheduled are outdoor jazz and an American Idol-style casting call sponsored by Verizon.

All 100 braziers will be lit along the Providence, Woonasquatucket and Moshassuck rivers.

And it's the debut of the revamped WaterFire Jazz Stage, featuring the Chaplin Brothers Quartet led by 16-year-old guitarist Gregory Chaplin. The jazz stage is located on Steeple Street between Canal Street and North Main. Times are 8:30 to 11 p.m.

The aforementioned casting call is from 7 to 11 p.m. at the corner of Steeple Street and North Main. According to a news release, Verizon is holding a series of open casting calls at WaterFire lightings throughout the summer. TThe object is to find "a man or woman" to star in a local media campaign promoting Verizon's new fiber-optic Internet and cable service, know as FiOS.

Applicants will be asked to record a 15-second video explaining "why they should be famous with Verizon FiOS."

Call (401) 272-3111 or visit www.waterfire.org for information.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney at 7:14 PM | Comment

RISD heads graduation list this weekend

Rhode Island School of Design, where graduation is sometimes an art show itself thanks to students' artful caps and gowns, holds commencement tomorrow at 10 a.m.

For motorists expecting to pass through the RISD area on the East Side of Providence, traffic will be held for roughly 15 minutes on South Water Street some time between 9:30 and 10 a.m. while graduating students make their way through. Students begin that journey at the First Baptist Church.

It's one of several college and high school graduations this weekend.

Bristol Community College holds graduation tomorrow at its Fall River, Mass., campus starting at 11 a.m.

Also tomorrow, in Barrington, the St. Andrew's School ceremony is at 11 a.m.

On Sunday, at 1 p.m., Joseph Case High School in Swansea, Mass., has graduation, as does Tri-County Regional Vocational School in Massachusetts at noon and, at 2 p.m., Bishop Stang High School in Dartmouth, Mass. Bishop Connolly High School, in Fall River, Mass., holds graduation at 4 p.m. Sunday.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney at 7:12 PM | Comment

Weather: Unsettled skies hovering over area / Photo

Sun, clouds and some thunderstorms are in the picture for this weekend, which features temperatures in the 80s tomorrow and 70s on Sunday.

Right now, skies are strangely gray, especially to the north of Providence, where a line of thunderstorms is hovering over Boston's South Shore.

The unsettled weather will remain until early next week, until a high pressure area moves in.

Get the latest conditions and forecasts, at: http://projo.com/weather

The weekend for southeastern

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 6:59 PM | Comment

A bounty of cats at Pawtucket pet adoption weekend

PAWTUCKET -- People will have a whole lot of cats to choose from during this weekend's pet adoption at the animal shelter: Authorities today collected dozens more they say were living in the same home where cat hoarding happened in 2003.

"We removed approximately 50 cats," said John Holmes, the Pawtucket animal control supervisor. "There's still more in the house that we are trying to get."

Holmes said the collection of those cats coincidentally comes as the shelter holds a pet adoption tomorrow and Sunday, at 401 Newport Ave. The event begins at 10 a.m. and continues "to midnight, if we have to," he said, adding that the shelter has a combined total of about 150 cats right now.

Holmes said animal control received a call about a strong odor from the property. Authorities removed "hundreds of pounds of animal feces" from outside the house in trash bags -- the town Department of Public Works was called in with a payloader to help clean it up, he added.

Animal control went to the same home, at 162 Ballston Ave., four years ago and removed 98 cats, Holmes said. He said animal control was not releasing the residents' names, but said misdemeanor charges are expected next week. The charges pertain to owning and keeping unaltered animals -- unspayed and unneutered.

Tripp Funeral Home in Pawtucket is sponsoring cat alteration for any cat that is adopted, Holmes said.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney at 6:41 PM | Comment

Photo: Renaissance Hotel reborn with ceremony

Journal photo / Sandor Bodo
This time, it's official. The new Renaissance Providence Hotel opened its doors with a ceremonial flash today. Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline, at podium, was among the attendees, who also included Steven E. Smith, of the Freemasons in Rhode Island and his wife -- the hotel's first official guests. The hotel, said to be booked with conventioneers next week, was built from the ruins of the old Masonic Temple.

Extra: Take a multimedia tour of the hotel, which unofficially opened last month.

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 6:37 PM | Comment

Woman indicted for killing man in Providence bar

PROVIDENCE -- A Boston woman was indicted today, accused of the stabbing murder of David De La Rosa-Ruiz in the Comfort Zone sports bar last year.

Penny Juan, 36, of 66 Highland Ave., is being held without bail at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston and will be arraigned in Providence County Superior Court on June 13.

The police arrested Juan in January, charging her with one count of murder, and said at the time that they learned of the slaying when they were called to the Comfort Zone, located on Public Street in the Elmwood section, around 1 a.m. on Oct. 13, 2006.

The police said they found De La Rosa, 27, of 99 Ford St. in the city's West End, dead in the street. He had been stabbed in a barroom brawl, according to the police.

The city's Board of Licenses revoked the Comfort Zone's liquor license because of the incident.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with archival reports

Posted by Mike McKinney at 4:43 PM | Comment

Report says state's workers too unskilled

CRANSTON -- The state’s failure to produce skilled workers has placed it on a “collision course” that will yield stagnating incomes and a sluggish economy, according to a new study by the Rhode Island Economic Policy Council, an influential advisory panel made up of leaders in government, education and business.

The study, titled Education and Workforce Scorecard, says the average level of education in the state is declining at the same time as the skills required by employers rapidly increases. That disconnect, the report says, could speed the outsourcing of jobs to China and India, while producing a spike in unemployment in Rhode Island.

“Large numbers of Rhode Island adult job seekers and incumbent workers lack the skills to fill vacancies in high-demand occupations,” according to the study, released this morning at the council's quarterly meeting. “Rhode Island’s economy and workforce are moving in opposite directions.”

-- Journal staff writer Benjamin N. Gedan

Posted by Mike McKinney at 4:39 PM | Comment

Arraignment set in $26,907 child-support case

The former Swansea resident listed as one of the Massachusetts Department of Revenue's top-10 most wanted "deadbeat dads" will be arraigned in Fall River Monday, the office of Bristol County District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter announced today.

Robert J. Scrima was arrested last month in Las Vegas. According to the district attorney's office, he owes $26,907 for his daughter's care.

Scrima waived extradition this month to be taken to Massachusetts to face a felony charge in Fall River District Court of failing to comply with a state support order, according to the district attorney.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 3:52 PM | Comment

Photo: Young falcon gets flying assist from DEM

Photo courtesty of Joe Buban / RI DEM
Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management Officer Mark Saunders returns a young peregrine falcon to the Bank of America building in Providence after it apparently fell while learning to fly.

PROVIDENCE -- Learning to fly can be difficult, especially when you start from the 28th floor of a building in downtown Providence.

When the state Department of Environmental Management received a call today about an injured falcon on the ground near the Bank of America building, DEM officers Joe Buban and Mark Saunders found a young peregrine falcon in a vacant lot across from the building.

Buban and Saunders checked the bird for injuries -- found it was in good health -- and decided to return it to a nesting box on the 28th floor of the Bank of America building, where peregrines have been nesting for the past several years.

With the help of bank employee Michael Fossa, they were able to bring it up to the 27th floor and put the bird on the deck near the nest.

"As soon as we did that, the parents started to dive bomb us so we had to get out of there," Saunders said.

Saunders says the falcon was born this spring, and he believes the bird was injured learning to fly. There's little margin for error, he says, learning to fly among city buildings, especially when you're a bird capable of moving at nearly 200 mph.

"The young ones, they've got to learn fast," Saunders said.

He figures the young falcon is doing better now, since a worker from the nearby Textron office, Dan Custer, called him about a half hour after the rescue to say he saw the baby bird flying again.

Posted by Jack Perry at 3:31 PM | Comment

The Nazis, a baroness and a 19th century painting

PROVIDENCE -- A federal judge today granted a request by the estate of a late Jewish art dealer to stop an elderly German baroness from further moving a painting that it claims was looted by the Nazis.

U.S. District Judge Mary Lisi also ordered Maria-Luise Bissonnette, who inherited the painting and now lives in Providence, to permit representatives from Max Stern's estate to inspect the artwork and ensure it is being stored properly and in appropriate condition.

The Canadian foundation that inherited Stern's estate filed a lawsuit in federal court in Providence last year to reclaim the 19th century painting, "Girl from the Sabiner Mountains," by Franz Xaver Winterhalter.

The painting was auctioned under duress after the Nazis forced Stern to close a family gallery in 1937 under the German government's anti-Jewish laws, according to the suit.

The painting was acquired by Bissonnette's stepfather, Karl Wilharm, and was later inherited by the woman.

-- The Associated Press

Lawyers for the plaintiffs say Bissonnette secretly rushed the painting to Germany after learning the estate was considering a lawsuit. Bissonnette said last week that she and her family had done nothing wrong.

Lisi today said Bissonnette could not move the painting again without court permission.

The two sides had been negotiating but have reached an impasse, Samuel Zurier, a lawyer for the estate, told the judge. Also Friday, Bissonnette's local lawyer withdrew from the case because of differences of opinion with his client.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 3:06 PM | Comment

Pawtucket residents sentenced for cocaine trafficking

Two residents of the Prospect Heights housing development in Pawtucket were sentenced in U.S. District Court today to 10 and 12.5 years in prison for trafficking in crack cocaine in Prospect Heights.

U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith sentenced John L. Kimbrough, 39, to 12 ½ years, and Chief U.S. District Court Judge Mary M. Lisi sentenced Fernando J. Torres, 23, to 10 years, according to the Providence office of U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente.

The sentences imposed today bring to four the number of people sentenced for at least 10 years following a joint investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Pawtucket Police into drug trafficking in the housing development, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Another defendant, Braulio Henriquez, of Central Falls, has pleaded guilty to a crack cocaine conspiracy and is awaiting sentencing. Charges are pending against two other men.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

Kimbrough pleaded guilty in March to charges of distributing crack cocaine and of being a felon in possession of a firearm. At a plea hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee H. Vilker said the government could prove Kimbrough sold 49 grams of crack for $2,000 in April 2006 at his apartment on Prospect Street. The following month, he sold a .25 caliber handgun for $350. Kimbrough has prior felony convictions for drug trafficking and a firearms violation, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Also in March, Torres pleaded guilty to distributing 50 grams or more of crack cocaine. Assistant U.S. Attorney Zechariah Chafee said the government could prove Torres sold 54 grams of crack for $1,600 in Prospect Heights last August, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 2:58 PM | Comment

Photo: Sharing a sweet treat

Journal photo / Kathy Borchers

These young friends from North Kingstown enjoy honey sticks while attending the Friday-morning farmers' market at Goddard State Memorial Park in Warwick. From left, they are: Caitlin Culhane, 6; Seth LaFreniere, 6; Keara Culhane, 3; Alana Horan, 3; Aidan Horan, 5, and Shamus Culhane, 3.

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 2:10 PM | Comment

Tiverton man gets 10 years for drug trafficking

A Tiverton man has been sentenced in Massachusetts to 10 years in prison for trafficking in 121 grams of cocaine and possessing heroin and marijuana with intent to distribute it.

Mark Berube, 30, whose last known address was 14 Colonial Ave., was arrested by Fall River police on April 17 last year after an officer said he saw Berube selling drugs out of his vehicle on South Main Street, according to a news release today from the office of Bristol County District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter.

Berube's conviction yesterday, after a two-day trial in Taunton Superior Court, includes a charge of trafficking cocaine within a school zone.

In a search of Berube's vehicle, the police said they seized 121 grams of cocaine, a large brick of heroin, a half-pound of marijuana and $7,740 in U.S. currency, according to the statement.

Sutter's office has asked that the money be forfeited, which will come up at a future hearing.

Sutter praised the work of the police and others, saying: “This case is a prime example of my office’s new policy that we do not offer sentence reductions on cases where a defendant is charged with being a major drug dealer; meaning trafficking more than 100 grams of narcotics."

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney at 2:06 PM | Comment

3rd man pleads guilty to pin-pad fraud at Stop & Shop

PROVIDENCE --A third defendant in the Stop & Shop fraud case pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court today to federal charges of helping to divert some $132,000 from customers at two of the chain's Rhode Island stores.

Arutyun Shatarevyan, 20, of Los Angeles, Calif., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit fraud and aggravated identity theft in an agreement signed with federal prosecutors.

The defendants took the account numbers from customers who used pin pads at four Rhode Island stores, but there were 232 customer accounts from which money was actually taken: at the Stop & Shops on Tiogue Avenue in Coventry and on Atwood Avenue in Cranston, according to prosecutors.

Shatarevyan's plea follows the same pleas this month by Arman Ter-Esayan and Gevork Baltadjian, both of California.

The three are subject to up to five years' imprisonment on the first charge and at least two more years in prison on the second charge, plus fines of up to $250,000 on each charge, according to federal court documents.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with reports from Journal staff writer Paul Grimaldi

The case against a fourth man charged in the incidents, Mikael Stepanian, 28, of Studio City, Calif., has not yet been resolved. U.S. Magistrate Judge David L. Martin has set a June 27 deadline for the government to formally charge Stepanian.

The four men face separate state felony charges in the case: computer fraud, theft using a computer and conspiracy, as well as computer trespass, a misdemeanor.

State and Coventry police arrested the four suspects Feb. 26 at the Stop & Shop on Tiogue Avenue in Coventry where, federal and state authorities say, the men had gone to retrieve a checkout lane PIN pad rigged to capture shoppers' financial-account information.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 2:00 PM | Comment

Grand jury does not indict Fall River man in stabbing

A 34-year-old Fall River man who had been charged with the stabbing murder of a man in April has been released after a Bristol County grand jury decided not to indict him.

Stephen Barreto, 34, of Fall River, was released from custody yesterday, the office of Bristol County District Attorney C. Samuel Sutter announced today.

Barreto had been charged with murder in connection with the April 10 stabbing death of 32-year-old William Dupras on Hancock Street near the Tiverton line.

The authorities had accused Barreto of stabbing Dupras -- only after Dupras and two other men allegedly beat him with a pipe and robbed him, according to the news release from Sutter's office.

Last month, police described Barretto as suspecting that he was getting robbed, instead of being sold cocaine, and fighting back against the men who started beating him.

Michael P. Sama, 27, of 33 Abbott Place, Fall River, and Donald V. Alfonso, 26, of Fall River, have been charged with aggravated assault and battery against Barretto, armed assault to rob and assault with a dangerous weapon.

Fall River Police and Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office, "and all of the available evidence was presented to the grand jury," according to the district attorney's office. "Evidence in the case included witness testimony and physical evidence."

No further charges will be filed against Barreto in the case.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with archival reports

Posted by Mike McKinney at 1:59 PM | Comment

Langevin, Clinton swap endorsements

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign today announced the endorsement of Rep. James R. Langevin, D-R.I., and its choice to name him chairman of her Rhode Island campaign for the Democratic nomination.

Langevin will serve as a special adviser to the campaign on stem cell research and policy and outreach to people with disabilities, the Clinton campaign announced in a statement this afternoon.

"I am excited and honored to announce my support for my colleague in Congress and friend, Senator Hillary Clinton, for president,” Langevin said in his own statement this afternoon. “I firmly believe that Senator Clinton has the experience, strength and vision to lead our country from her very first day as president.”

In both statements, Langevin said he has “long admired” Clinton, from her early days as first lady “working to solve our nation’s health care crisis to her tenure in the Senate, where she continues to champion the needs of the less fortunate.”

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

Posted by Kate Bramson at 1:53 PM | Comment

Drivers take care: traffic delays now on Route 95

There's a three-mile traffic delay on Route 95 north from just before exit 18 to exit 24, the state Transportation Management Center cautions.

Roadwork that began at 9 a.m. closed one lane but there was also an accident that has resulted in slowdowns as well.

There is also an accident, believed to be minor, on Route 95 south in the area of exit 18.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney at 11:41 AM | Comment

Medical marijuana legislation heads to governor

PROVIDENCE -- A bill that would make the state's medical marijuana program permanent is expected to have enough support to sustain a veto from the governor.

The Senate on Wednesday passed the legislation by a 29-to-five vote. The House approved an identical bill last week by a 51-to-12 margin.

Gov. Carcieri has threatened to veto the legislation.

Currently, patients with debilitating illnesses are permitted to possess up to 12 marijuana plants or up to two-point-five ounces of the drug. Supporters say marijuana can ease the pain associated with terminal illnesses.

The bill passed by the General Assembly also removes a sunset provision that would cause the program to expire on June 30th.

-- The Associated Press

Posted by Jack Perry at 11:28 AM | Comment

Judge: Derderian on schedule for community service

After what the Rhode Island Attorney General considered a slow start, Station nightclub co-owner Jeffrey Derderian's community service work appears to be on schedule, a Superior Court judge said today.

Derderian was spared a jail sentence in September and ordered to perform 500 hours during his three years on probation for his role in one of the state's deadliest fires.

But Attorney General Patrick Lynch criticized Derderian's progress in April when it came to light that he'd completed 70 hours of service in the seven months since he was sentenced. Lynch called it "inadequate and very disappointing."

After an April hearing, the sentencing judge, Francis J. Darigan Jr., ordered the probation department to file quarterly reports beginning in June to update the status of Derderian's community service.

According to documents filed in Kent County Superior Court, Derderian has now completed 235 hours of community service work. A letter from the Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors, Inc., says he has completed 171 hours and another from West Greenwich Fire and Rescue says he has completed 64.

Extra: Read the letters.

Darigan said today, "Everything appears to be on schedule."

Derderian was not required to be in court today, and Darigan said he won't be called in unless he appears to fall off the schedule.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Talia Buford

The fire that raced through the brothers' club on Feb. 20, 2003, killed 100 people and injured more than 200.

The Derderians were charged with involuntary manslaughter. After he pleaded no contest, Jeffrey Derderian received a suspended sentence, with 500 hours of "appropriate" community service and 3 years of probation.

Michael A. Derderian, who also pleaded no contest, was ordered to serve four years in prison.

In April, Derderian's lawyer, Kathleen M. Hagerty, said it had been difficult to find places where her client could perform community service, particularly where he could work with burn victims, which had been a request of many family members of fire victims.

Derderian, in an April e-mail, said that finding places to volunteer has been "a careful, deliberate process."

Posted by Jack Perry at 11:12 AM | Comment

Man's conviction of sexually assaulting girl, 14, upheld

The state Supreme Court today upheld the conviction of Eugene C. Texter III, who was found guilty in 2005 of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old Narragansett girl as she walked to school four years ago.

Texter had appealed the Washington County Superior Court ruling, with his public defender arguing that the jurors who convicted Texter should not have been allowed to hear testimony about the victim’s identification of Texter as her attacker shortly after the assault.

In the Supreme Court ruling issued today, Texter’s “appeal is denied and the judgment of conviction is affirmed.”

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

Posted by Kate Bramson at 11:00 AM | Comment

It's hurricane season, and now's the time to prepare

PROVIDENCE – It’s a fool’s errand trying to predict when and where hurricanes could actually hit during the Atlantic hurricane season that began today.

National Weather Service meteorologist Matthew Belk, who is the hurricane program leader for the Taunton office, said he just can’t do it.

“My thing is: Don’t get obsessive about the numbers of hurricanes because all it takes is one,” he said. “A good example of that principle is 1992. There were only five named tropical systems that year, but one of them was Hurricane Andrew.”

That hurricane – one of the strongest and most destructive U.S. hurricanes on record – blasted its way across south Florida, caused 23 deaths in the United States and three more in the Bahamas and caused $26.5 billion in damage in the United States ($1 billion in Louisiana and the rest in south Florida), according to The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration.

NOAA has predicted a 75 percent that we’ll have an above-normal hurricane season, a 20 percent chance of a near-normal season and only a 5 percent chance of a below-normal season.

AP video: A first-person hurricane account

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

Belk’s biggest fear, he said this morning, is that “people tend to react to their conception of history rather than history itself.”

“It’s been 53 years since we’ve been hit by a major hurricane,” he said of southern New England. “The last hurricane we had was Hurricane Bob back in 1991, but Bob was not a major hurricane. Gloria, back in 1985, was not a major hurricane. … It’s been 53 years. We have a lot of people who live in southern New England – Rhode Island, southeastern Massachusetts – who have not lived through a major hurricane. There’s no experience base there for people to use in making good decisions.”

Now is the time to prepare for hurricanes, Belk said. Sure, the vast majority of tropical storms and hurricane activity typically develops during the peak of the season – from August to October. But it’s too late to start preparing when the storm is battering toward us, Belk said.

“We really need to prepare, and it’s tough to do when the sun is out and the birds are chirping, but this is the best time to do it so you can get everything done to protect yourself,” he said.

If people wait to board up their windows as the hurricane is approaching, local hardware stores just will not have the plywood and other supplies needed for New England’s population base, stressed this meteorologist who works with emergency management directors to educate them about hurricanes.

Belk has three rules of thumb for people in southern New England to keep in mind about the hurricane season:

1. Pay attention to any tropical system with a name in the Bahamas – and decide what you’ll do while the storm is still in the Bahamas because it could be here in 24 hours.
“And the reason for that is every hurricane that’s ever hit us has either passed through or very close to the Bahamas.”

2. When a storm is forecast to arrive at a certain time, speed up that time by at least six hours and plan to have all your outdoor preparation work completed by then.
“It’s better to be done early than to be done too late.”

3. This one’s simple. Run from the water. Hide from the wind.
“If you’re going to get coastal flooding, you need to get out of that area that’s going to flood. You don’t need to evacuate to Canada; you just need to get out of a more vulnerable area into a structure that can withstand the wind. The ocean is the worlds’ most efficient battering ram. A cubic meter of water literally weighs a ton.”

While an average hurricane season features approximately 11 named storms, NOAA is predicting we could have 13 to 17 named storms this year. Those are storms with sustained winds between 39 and 73 miles per hour. Seven to 10 of those named storms could be hurricanes (with sustained winds of at least 74 miles per hour), and three to five of those could be major hurricanes (with sustained winds exceeding 110 miles per hour), according to predictions.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 9:34 AM | Comment

High in the 80s with chance of a thunderstorm

PROVIDENCE – It’s looking like we could have a mostly rainy weekend.

However, even though rain is all over the National Weather Service’s forecast through Tuesday, we could escape. Most days and nights coming up, the weather service is predicting a 30 percent chance of rain or thunderstorms. So cross your fingers and hope for the best.

We’ve also got a chance for isolated thunderstorms this morning before 9 a.m.

We should see a high of 85 degrees today and tomorrow, with nighttime lows in the low 60s. Then, temps are expected to drop into the high 70s and even the high 60s for the next couple days.

Get the latest conditions and forecasts from projo.com.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 7:05 AM | Comment

3rd Stop and Shop defendant expected to plead guilty

PROVIDENCE -- A plea hearing is scheduled today for one of four men accused of scamming customers of Stop and Shop supermarkets.

Arutyun Shatarevyan has agreed to plead guilty and is expected this morning in federal court in Providence.

Two other defendants pleaded guilty in federal court on Wednesday to charges of conspiracy and aggravated identity theft.

Four men were arrested in February in what authorities said was a plot to steal credit and debit card numbers from Stop and Shop customers.

Prosecutors say the men removed or tried to remove key pads from several supermarkets in Rhode Island and Massachusetts and then replaced them with alternate devices that would record the customers' data.

-- The Associated Press

Posted by Jack Perry at 7:03 AM | Comment

Today's front page

Today's front page features photographs and a story reporting how community policing has helped reduce crime in Providence. Another story explains that former Mayor Vincent A. "Buddy" Cianci can, indeed, again run for office.

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

Posted by Jack Perry at 7:02 AM | Comment