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August 8, 2007

Tonight the drums sound on the big screen

If you didn't catch the free concert that included an Ohio drum line, which was scheduled to sound off at noon today at WaterPlace Park, you can watch them on the big screen tonight in Providence.

The producers of the film "From the 50 Yard Line" presented the performance earlier today. Now the movie about the award-winning Centreville, Ohio, band is slated to be screened at 7 p.m. at the Columbus Theater as part of the ongoing Rhode Island International Film Festival.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 6:57 PM | Comment

Longtime Somerset fire chief announces retirement

SOMERSET -- Stephen J. Rivard, the town's fire chief for the past 19 years, announced this evening that he is retiring, probably in January.

The 52-year-old chief, a firefighter for more than 32 years, cited health reasons for his departure, but declined to be specific. He has been out on sick leave for two months, working in an advisory role with Deputy Chief Dana K. Hilliard, who has been acting chief.

He declined to speculate on a successor, saying that would be up to the Board of Selectmen.

Rivard said he has asked the selectmen for permission to continue his work as director of the town's Emergency Management Agency. ``I want to give back to the community I love so much,'' he said.

Rivard has been in the business for over 32 years. He was hired as an emergency medical technician in Fall River on St. Patrick's Day 1975.

He became a Somerset firefighter in August 1977, was promoted to lieutenant in 1986 and was named chief July 10, 1988. At 33, he was one of the youngest chiefs in the Commonwealth.

``It's been a great run for me,'' he said.

-- Journal staff writer C. Eugene Emery Jr.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 6:28 PM | Comment

Newport police investigate shooting

NEWPORT -- Newport police are investigating a shooting that left one man injured.

Investigators say the attack Tuesday night injured a 27-year-old man, but none of his wounds are life threatening.

The gunfire broke out outside an apartment complex near the Middletown border around 8 p.m.

Police Lt. William Fitzgerald Jr. says officers found several empty shell casings at the scene -- but no victim or weapon.

A short while later, detectives were sent to Newport Hospital to interview a man seeking treatment for a gunshot wound.

Fitzgerald wouldn't release the victim's identity or discuss a motive. But he says the attack wasn't random.

On Monday, a 17-year-old boy was stabbed near the same apartment complex. The police say the incidents appear unrelated.

-- The Associated Press

Posted by Mike McKinney at 6:05 PM | Comment

Company indicted today in Big Dig collapse

BOSTON -- The company that provided the epoxy blamed in the fatal Big Dig tunnel collapse was indicted today in the death of a motorist crushed by ceiling panels.

Powers Fasteners Inc., was charged with one count of involuntary manslaughter, Attorney General Martha Coakley said. The Brewster, N.Y.-based firm was the only company involved in the construction and design of the tunnel to be indicted by the Suffolk County grand jury, Coakley said, while stressing the investigation remains open.

A report from the National Transportation Safety Board released last month found the July 10, 2006, collapse could have been avoided if designers and construction crews had considered that the epoxy holding support anchors for the panels could slowly pull away over time.

Milena Del Valle, 39, was killed when 26 tons of concrete panels and hardware came crashing down from a tunnel ceiling onto her car as she and her husband drove through the westbound I-90 connector tunnel. Her husband crawled out of the rubble with minor injuries.

The company did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

Prosecutors said Powers Fasteners knew the type of epoxy it marketed and sold for the Big Dig project was unsuitable for the weight it would have to hold, but never told project managers.

"They failed to make that distinction clear," said Paul Ware, hired as a special investigator by Coakley.

The maximum penalty for a company charged with manslaughter in Massachusetts is $1,000. Coakley said the case highlights a need to change the law, saying the criminal statute may be "wholly inadequate."

The indictment comes after more than a year of investigations by state and federal agencies. The charge does not directly affect a separate wrongful death lawsuit that Del Valle's husband and daughter filed against Powers, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority and eight other companies.

-- The Associated Press

Mario Garcia, a Miami attorney for Raquel Ibarra Mora, who lives in Costa Rica, said Mora applauded the attorney general's efforts to hold the people accountable for the accident that killed her mother.

"She hopes that this is just the beginning of many more who would hopefully be held responsible," Garcia said.

Jeffrey Denner, an attorney for Angel Del Valle, said he believes the grand jury would continue to consider criminal charges against others involved but that it was appropriate to charge Powers.

"They are certainly as culpable as it gets. They are the people who supplied the epoxy," he said.

In the report released last month, federal investigators spread blame for the collapse among the many corporations, consultants and engineers involved in the Big Dig project. The agency also faulted the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority for failing to conduct a timely tunnel inspection program.

The NTSB singled out Powers for providing "inadequate and misleading" information about its Power-Fast epoxy. Tests had shown the epoxy's "Fast Set" formulation to be "subject to creep under sustained tension loading," the report said.

Officials from Powers Fasteners issued a statement after the report was issued saying it would be "an absurd conclusion if the federal investigators were to consider Powers Fasteners in any way responsible, since the overwhelming evidence is that the fault lies elsewhere."

On Aug. 3, the NTSB sent Powers Fasteners a letter recommending they "revise the packaging, for all distributors, of your Power-Fast Epoxy Injection Gel Fast Set formulation to state explicitly that this formulation is approved for short-term loads only."

Del Valle's death prompted tunnel and road closures and sparked a public furor over the Big Dig project, the most expensive highway project in U.S. history.

The $14.79 billion Big Dig, which had an initial price tag of $2.6 billion, has been plagued by problems and cost overruns throughout the two decades it took to design and build. The construction buried the old elevated Central Artery that ran through the heart of Boston with a series of tunnels, ramps and bridges.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 6:03 PM | Comment

Update: Drivers identified in tractor trailer crash

A Central Falls man is in stable condition at Rhode Island Hospital after the tractor trailer he was driving rear-ended another truck on Route 95 northbound around 4:30 a.m., causing the highway to be closed to traffic during the morning commute, the state police said.

Gilbert Galvin, 59, of 106 Sacred Heart Ave., is being treated in the hospital’s trauma intensive care unit, state police Sgt. Karen Pinch said.

The driver of the other rig, Brenda Falke, 45, of Alto Bay, N.H., was taken to Westerly Hospital, where she was treated and released.

The accident happened at about 4:30 a.m. just south of Exit 3. State police closed a portion of Route 95 northbound for several hours as crews worked to clear the roadway in Richmond and Hopkinton of wreckage and diesel fuel that spilled from the vehicles, Hope Valley-Wyoming Fire Chief Frederick Stanley said. Traffic was detoured off the highway onto Route 3 until around 10 a.m.

Galvin drove the double tractor trailer, which rear-ended the single tractor as both traveled in the low-speed lane, Pinch said.

Galvin’s cab dislodged from the trailer upon impact and flipped, Stanley said. Hope Valley firefighters used an extrication device to pull him from the wreck, where he was hanging by his seatbelt with serious head injuries, Stanley said. He was taken to Rhode Island Hospital by Hope Valley ambulance, Stanley said.

An accident reconstruction team is investigating to see whether speed was a factor or whether there will be charges, Pinch said.

The state departments of Transportation and Environmental Management oversaw the fuel clean-up, Stanley said. Fire crews from Ashaway and Richmond-Carolina also responded to the scene.

-- Journal staff writer Katie Mulvaney, with reports from projo.com staff writers Michael P. McKinney and Kate Bramson

Posted by Mike McKinney at 6:01 PM | Comment

Smithfield soon gets traffic divider to reduce crashes

SMITHFIELD -- The state Department of Transportation announced today that work crews will soon build a traffic divider on Cedar Swamp Road at the Apple Valley Mall, an area prone to traffic accidents.

The DOT admitted that a “bad design” has been the culprit in the crashes.

The area is question is just east of the Route 44 intersection. A convenience store and gas station lies across the street. Cedar Swamp Road, also known as Route 5, is six lanes wide, and cars that exit the mall to turn left must cross three to five lanes of traffic headed in opposite directions. Motorists leaving the gas station also often encounter the same difficult traffic pattern in making left turns.

Under the plan announced today workers will install a 2-foot-wide raised island along Cedar Swamp Road starting at Route 44 and stretching east along Cedar Swamp for approximately 225 feet.

Drivers leaving the mall or the gas station will be able only to turn right, eliminating awkward encounters.

The work, expected to begin within a week, was urged by Smithfield’s three General Assembly delegates: Sen. John J. Tassoni Jr. D-Smithfield and North Smithfield, Rep. Thomas J. Winfield, D-Smithfield and Glocester, and Rep. Peter J. Petrarca, D-Lincoln, Smithfield and Johnston.

At the request of the legislators, DOT officials examined the intersection, acknowledged the complexities of its configuration and ordered corrections to improve traffic safety, the DOT said.

-- Journal staff writer Thomas J. Morgan

Posted by Mike McKinney at 4:58 PM | Comment

Alert: Urciuoli files appeal of his conviction

PROVIDENCE -- A former medical center executive asked a federal appeals court today to overturn his conviction for paying a state senator to advance his hospital's political agenda, saying the trial judge gave the jury flawed instructions.

Robert Urciuoli, the former president and chief executive of Roger Williams Medical Center, was convicted last fall of conspiracy and mail fraud for directing ex-state Sen. John Celona to support bills favorable to the hospital and oppose legislation the hospital was against.

Urciuoli was convicted with Frances Driscoll, a former medical center vice president, as part of a sweeping federal probe into State House corruption.

Defense lawyers argued in written briefs submitted to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston that U.S. District Judge Ernest Torres erred by permitting the jury to consider work that Celona did for the hospital -- such as lobbying towns for increased ambulance runs and arranging meetings with insurance company executives -- that had nothing to do with legislation or his job as a senator.

The appeals court has allowed both defendants to remain free on bail pending their appeal, saying the men raised important questions about the jury questions.

Urciuoli was sentenced to three years in prison, and Driscoll was sentenced to eight months in prison followed by eight months of home confinement.

Celona, a once-powerful lawmaker who chaired a Senate committee that dealt with health-care legislation, was hired as a consultant for an assisted-living home affiliated with Roger Williams. In reality, prosecutors said, he was paid by the hospital executives to promote their legislative agenda and perform other favors.

He was paid more than $250,000 for his work. Celona pleaded guilty in 2005 to having improper business dealings with Roger Williams, CVS Corp. and Blue Cross and Blue Shield. He is serving a 2 1/2 year federal prison sentence.

-- The Associated Press

Posted by Mike McKinney at 4:18 PM | Comment

Chief justice appoints tribunal-chief selection panel

State Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank J. Williams announced today he has appointed the three-member committee that will seek and review candidates for the new chief magistrate position of the state Traffic Tribunal.

Appointed are Judge Edward C. Parker, who will served as chairman, Alfred A. Russo, who will serve as the attorney member of the committee, and Robert Murray, who will serve as the public member.

According to the chief justice's executive order, the committee will serve until a chief magistrate candidate is "appointed and qualified."

Besides reviewing applications and other evidence of "good character, judgment, legal ability, temperament, and commitment to equal justice" to decide which candidates to interview, it will also consider the public's and members of the bar's written comments.

A list of interviewees will be forwarded to the state police, the state Ethics Commission, disciplinary counsel, and the attorney general’s office. They will do a background check and give the results to the committee.

The committee will discuss the candidates and vote, then submit the list of three to five candidates for the position to the chief justice -- within 45 days of today's executive order.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney at 4:15 PM | Comment

Providence plans for 2009 annual conference of mayors

PROVIDENCE – Poised to host 1,500 people at the 2009 annual conference for a national mayors organization, the capital city has been praised as “a good example for American cities to follow.”

The United States Conference of Mayors President Tom Cochran said Providence was selected from among more than 20 cities vying for the 2009 USCM conference, according to Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline’s office. The two met privately today to discuss plans for the conference, which is expected to draw 400 mayors and staff from across America. This will be the first time Providence hosts the annual meeting.

Designating a city as conference host is a way of “honoring a great city and state,” Cochran said in a news release issued by Cicilline’s office.

In January, Cicilline was named national chairman of the group's Committee on Children, Health and Human Services, 1 of its 11 standing committees.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

Posted by Kate Bramson at 4:10 PM | Comment

Woonsocket man indicted on molestation counts

A 36-year-old Woonsocket man was indicted today on three counts of first-degree molestation and 10 counts of second-degree molestation for alleged incidents over several years involving children 14 years old or younger.

Angel Rodriguez, of 193 River St., is accused of committing three crimes of first-degree child molestation and three crimes of second-degree molestation between Jan. 1 and April 24, according to the Providence Grand Jury indictment.

He also allegedly committed three crimes of second-degree molestation between July 1, 2003, and Jan. 1 this year, one crime of second-degree molestation between Jan. 1 and April 4, and three crimes of second-degree molestation between July 1, 2003, and July 1, 2004

The authorities said the incidents all happened in Woonsocket.

Rodriguez is scheduled for an Aug. 29 arraignment.

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

In May, the Woonsocket police said Rodriguez was arrested afte being accused of molesting two girls, ages 13 and 13 at the time.

Rodriguez had already been facing charges for allegedly inappropriately touching another girl who is 10, over a four-year period. He was arrested on those charges on May 3, according to police reports.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 4:05 PM | Comment

Richardson's second murder trial set for November

WARWICK – A new trial date of Nov. 26 has been set for James Richardson, the 40-year-old Cranston man accused of murdering Margaret Duffy-Stephenson in her Warwick home in November 2005.

Richardson’s first trial for first-degree murder, which lasted a month, ended on June 27 when a Superior Court jury was unable to reach a verdict.

Lawyers from the Public Defender’s Office and the attorney general’s office met today at the Kent County Court House to decide on a new trial date. They also set a status conference date of Nov. 14, according to Beryl Kenyon, a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

The new trial will be in the Kent County Court House, as was the first trial. The same prosecutors will try the case again, Kenyon said.

Richardson is accused of fatally stabbing Duffy-Stephenson, 37, in her home and stealing $11,000 from a locked safe. She was a teacher’s aide for special-needs students in East Greenwich. Richardson worked for a landscaping business operated by Duffy-Stephenson’s husband, James O. Stephenson III.

In Richardson’s first trial, the jury deliberated for 3½ days, considering testimony by more than 20 witnesses and scores of pieces of evidence. On June 27, they told Judge Francis J. Darigan Jr. that they could not agree on a verdict on the charges of first-degree murder and burglary.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 2:33 PM | Comment

Democrats challenge Carcieri on 'right-wing' lawyer

The state Democrats' chairman is seeking under the Freedom of Information Act whether taxpayers have paid for a "right-wing" lawyer's services in a court case that could decide if a lesbian couple married in Massachusetts could divorce in Rhode Island.

Chairman William Lynch said in a news release he filed the request with the Carcieri administration today about lawyer James Bopp Jr. Lynch said if taxpayers have footed the bill, he wants to know for how much.

"Jim Bopp has made a living representing the narrow-minded ideology of people like Tom DeLay, and I’m sure he doesn’t come cheap. I think the taxpayers have a right to know if they’re paying the legal bills of this right-wing Republican lawyer, whose only role appears to be that of advocating the governor’s personal and political point of view,” Lynch said in the statement.

The governor's office says it will respond this afternoon.

The Supreme Court had invited state officials and interested parties to file friend-of-the court briefs by last week's deadline. The responses included briefs from the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Marriage Law Foundation.

Governor Carcieri, a Republican, and Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch, a Democrat -- William Lynch's brother -- agreed in legal briefs submitted to the state Supreme Court last week that a state court can grant two Providence women a divorce without answering the highly charged question of whether a same-sex marriage performed in Massachusetts should be recognized in Rhode Island,

However, Carcieri and Patrick Lynch differed over what the case's outcome should be if the high court does take up the larger issue.

Carcieri, a Republican and a Catholic who has opposed bills to legalize same-sex marriage, argued that Family Court should not recognize the marriage between Margaret R. Chambers and Cassandra B. Ormiston.

"Marriage as a legal union of one man and one woman is clearly the bedrock of Rhode Island family law," Carcieri's brief said, citing gender-specific terms such as "husband and wife" in state law. "Because of the pervasiveness of this position throughout its family law statutes, Rhode Island has a strong public policy against recognition of any other marriage than that between one man and one woman."

Lynch, a Democrat and a Catholic who has a sister who married a woman in Massachusetts, argued that Family Court should recognize the Chambers/Ormiston marriage under principles of comity, in which states recognize the laws and judicial decisions of other states.

"The crucial issue is whether there is a public policy in this state that is so strong it will require Rhode Island to except same-sex marriages from the traditional respect and recognition it has shown to laws of its sister states," Lynch's brief said. "Rhode Island's case law and legislative enactments do not support such a finding."

Asserting that Carcieri "holds no known legal standing in the case of Chambers v. Ormiston," Lynch wants to know if the governor billed the state for legal services "to advocate what is clearly a personal and politically-motivated opposition to marriages of same sex spouses."

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

Posted by Mike McKinney at 1:44 PM | Comment

Matunuck summer theater opens tonight

SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The historic Theatre By the Sea in Matunuck ends its nearly four-year closure tonight with a preview performance at 8 p.m. of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.”

About 35 tickets are still available for tonight and tomorrow’s previews, according to the theater box office. Preview tickets cost $35. Opening night is Friday, and the box office reports perhaps 25 to 30 tickets remaining for that performance. Those tickets range from $39 to $49.

Since the theater opened in 1933, there have been other halts in the shows as well. During World War II, the place was used for diving practice, as planes practiced strafing runs - the theater's large size and the way it stood out from its surroundings made it an ideal target.

For information on ticket sales and the reopening of the summer stock theater, check out the theatre’s Web site.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

Posted by Kate Bramson at 12:27 PM | Comment

Governor endorses redesign of Quonset project

NORTH KINGSTOWN -- The state agency that controls the Quonset Business Park officially unveiled today a significant redesign of the Quonset Gateway project, a $144-million development that was quashed by state planners in March amid criticism about its focus on large retail stores and sprawling paved surfaces.

The Providence Journal obtained the plans yesterday.

The new design places the so-called big-box stores - outlets of the Lowe's and Kohl's chains - behind a proposed Davisville Square, made up of a collection of small shops, cafés and benches that would replace the surface parking lots that had been planned for the border with Route 1.

In a statement released today, Governor Carcieri endorsed the project.

“In addition to supporting greater job growth within the park, the revised plan leverages private sector dollars to create a mixed-use site that will enhance the quality of the surrounding neighborhoods both today and in the years to come,” Carcieri said in the statement.

React to the revised proposal.

-- Journal saff writer Benjamin N. Gedan

Posted by Kate Bramson at 11:14 AM | Comment

Mt. Pleasant Branch library to close for renovations

PROVIDENCE – The city library’s Mount Pleasant Branch will be closed for a little more than two weeks for painting and carpeting renovations, beginning Aug. 20.

The branch located at 315 Academy Ave. will reopen on Sept. 4, the Tuesday after Labor Day Weekend, the Providence Public Library announced today.

Library users can return books to the branch using the book drop in front of the library. Book requests through the branch that come in during the closure can be picked up at the Wanskuck Branch Library, 233 Veazie St., unless otherwise specified.

The Mount Pleasant Branch staff will answer questions at the branch before Aug. 20. They can be reached at (401) 455-8105.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 11:09 AM | Comment

Update: Crews extinguish house fire in Lincoln

LINCOLN – The occupants of a house at 31 Angell Rd. escaped injury when a fire started in their home this morning.

The Lime Rock Fire Department was called around 8:45 a.m. and firefighters appear to have knocked it down as of about 9:50 a.m., but smoke could still be seen, and they were still spraying water from inside the house.

Two cats and a dog perished.

The outside of the house appeared to be intact, but soot was visible above a broken front window and other parts of the house.

Lime Rock Asst. Fire Chief Arthur Jaques says fire officials believe the fire, which started in the living room, was caused by an electrical problem.

Jacques said the home's occupants, a married couple, were home but got out safely.

Trucks, firefighters and equipment from several Lincoln fire departments were there.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson and Journal staff photographer Andrew Dickerman and The Associated Press

Posted by Kate Bramson at 10:21 AM | Comment

Providence to host meeting of mayors

PROVIDENCE -- Providence Mayor David Cicilline plans today to discuss preparations for an annual meeting of American mayors.

Providence in 2009 is hosting a meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors.

Cicilline will meet privately this morning with the organization's executive director Tom Cochran.

Cicilline is chairman of the organization's Children, Health and Human Services committee.

The nonpartisan USCM represents more than 1,100 cities in the country.

-- The Associated Press

Posted by Jack Perry at 7:02 AM | Comment

Rain likely this a.m., clearing and humid later

Heavy showers with the possibility of thunderstorms are likely this morning for much of southern New England, according to the National Weather Service.

The rain could be heavy enough to bring flooding in poor drainage areas, the weather service says.
Patchy fog is also expected to persist before 9 a.m.

It should turny sunny and humid this afternoon.

The temperature should reach 89 degrees in the Providence area today then drop to 69 tonight. As usual in the summer, it will be cooler at the coast. Today's high should be about 79 in Narragansett.

Posted by Jack Perry at 7:00 AM | Comment

Route 95 open in Providence, but closed in Richmond

The stretch of Route 95 in Providence that was closed for the Route 95-Route 195 interchange project overnight has opened again on schedule for the morning commute.

However, an accident further south on Route 95 has closed a portion of the highway to morning commuters, according to the state Department of Transportation. Only emergency vehicles were getting through on Route 95 north at exit 3A (the Route 138 east exit to Kingston and Newport), the DOT's Transportation Management Center reported around 5:20 this morning.

Last night's closure of the highway between exits 18 and 20 in Providence went as planned, with both northbound and southbound lanes of Route 95, between exits 18 and 20, shutting down just before 11 p.m. and re-opening before the state Department of Transportation's self-imposed 5:30 a.m. deadline.

The northbound lanes opened at 4:30 a.m., and the southbound lanes opened at 4:50 a.m., according to the Transportation Management Center.

This is the second week of this second round of closures for the highway project.

Tonight and tomorrow, just the northbound lanes are expected to close by 11 p.m. – with individual lane closures starting at 8 p.m. The lanes are expected to reopen by 5:30 a.m. tomorrow in time for morning commuters.

More work will take place after a weekend (Friday-Saturday night) break from the overnight closures.

Check out the road-closure schedule on the DOT’s site.

For a look back at the earlier closures this year, see projo.com’s special reports section.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

Posted by Kate Bramson at 6:26 AM | Comment