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September 4, 2007
Tentative contract agreement in Foster-Glocester
GLOCESTER -- There is a tentative agreement between the Foster-Glocester Regional School District and the union representing middle and high school teachers.
The two-year deal was reached late Monday night as the two sides met at a mediated session at the state Department of Labor and Training in Cranston.
Monday’s eight-hour negotiation capped nearly 60 hours of discussions between the district and the union.
“At one point, we were there from one morning to the next morning,” said Supt. Mario F. Cirillo. On Thursday, the two sides met until 6:30 in the morning then went into work Friday morning.
“It was a lot of hard work,” said Cirillo.
Union president Gary Martinelli said today that the negotiations were “at times frustrating” but that he was “glad that we came to an agreement.”
Both sides are keeping mum on the details of the tentative contract until the union’s approximately 130 members vote on it this Thursday. Martinelli said the location and time of the general membership meeting has yet to be determined.
Regional school committee co-chair Ronald Cervasio said the first year of the contract is in keeping with the 2008 school district budget approved by voters in late May.
That budget assumed a 2 percent raise and a 6x percent health-care contribution for teachers. “It’s the best possible deal we could get,” said Cervasio.
School started at Ponaganset on Aug. 30. Teachers reported to work as scheduled, and the union has no intention to strike at this point, according to Martinelli.
-- Journal staff writer Philip Marcelo
Posted by Mike McKinney at 7:10 PM
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Russian sub salvagers call mission a success
PROVIDENCE -- The military salvage teams that have been working to raise the sunken Russian missile submarine in Providence harbor have departed, declaring this stage of their mission a success and vowing to return in the spring to finally raise the submarine.
The Soviet missile submarine, known by its NATO designation of Juliett 484, has been resting on the harbor bottom, tilted on its side in 30 feet of water, after it sank in an April storm. The submarine had been a museum at Providence’s Collier Point Park since 2002, but the cash-strapped museum owners had no way to get the sub back above water.
The military decided to raise the submarine in order to provide training to its salvage dive teams, and 30 Army and Navy divers and an Army Reserve Landing Craft spent the past three weeks in Providence laying the groundwork to bring the submarine back above water.
Last week, divers attached cables to the submarine at four points, and then used large motors to pull the submarine slightly more upright and take pressure off the vessel’s hull.
The submarine didn’t move much, and is still resting at an angle underwater, but the cables are now bearing much of the load, and the submarine won’t be swept on down the bay if there is a bad winter storm.
“It came up maybe a foot. It did move a little bit,” said Navy Warrant Officer Peter Sharpe, who supervised the salvage divers on the operation.
The military crews will definitely return in the late spring to complete the project and bring the submarine above water, Sharpe said.
-- Journal staff writer Daniel Barbarisi
Posted by Mike McKinney at 7:02 PM
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Update: E. Greenwich school board meeting tonight
EAST GREENWICH -- The School Committee is meeting in closed session tonight, after the first day of classes was cancelled today following a strike vote by teachers.
Teachers and parents may come out in force for the meeting.
In the meantime, the district's superintendent has already declared that schools will be closed again tomorrow. And both sides in the contract dispute are slated to hold a mediated session of talks tomorrow evening.
This morning, Allison Burke Perrelli took her daughter, Julia Perrelli, to the bus stop, only to have her neighbor call out from the window, “There’s no school today; the teachers are on strike.”
After 30 hours of discussion over the Labor Day weekend, teachers and the East Greenwich school committee were not able to come to an agreement over terms of the teachers’ contract.
“I think it’s very unfortunate,” Supt. Charles E. Meyers said late this morning. Students were looking forward to their first day of school, he said. “It’s too bad that this type of enthusiasm for learning has to be curtailed.”
School Committee Chairwoman Suzanne McGee Cienki said the committee was ready to pursue “all legal options available at this point,” including taking the teachers to court and, if that didn’t work, having them arrested.
“The union is fully aware of the financial parameters that we are operating under with this new tax cap,” she said. “They want to use this contract negotiation as a way to put pressure on the General Assembly to come up with a new funding formula.”
-- projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson and Michael P. McKinney, with reports from Journal staff writer Lisa Vernon-Sparks
Posted by Mike McKinney at 6:42 PM
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Bicyclist struck, killed on Route 1, Charlestown
CHARLESTOWN -- A male bicyclist was struck and killed late this afternoon by an SUV as the rider was traveling in the breakdown lane on Route 1 south, police said.
The accident occurred between Kings Factory Road and Prosser Trail. Police did not yet know why a gray SUV moved into the breakdown lane, striking the bicyclist.
The bicyclist was wearing a helmet but was thrown from the bicycle.
The medical examiner has been on scene, and traffic was being diverted.
The female driver of the car was taken to the Westerly Hospital, but she is not believed to have serious injuries.
-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with reports from Journal staff writer Maria Armental
Posted by Mike McKinney at 6:06 PM
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Carcieri to eye ways to avert down-to-wire talks
PROVIDENCE -- In the wake of three teacher strikes, Governor Carcieri is planning to meet this week with state Departments of Education and Labor and Training and policy advisers "to see what options are available to prevent this type of thing from happening in the future," a spokesman said today.
"From the governor's point of view, it is a shame that the situation got so far down the road that contract negotiations are allowed to affect the education of Rhode Island students," said spokesman Jeff Neal.
Neal said he could not speak to the specific districts' situations, but he offered two observations.
He said Carcieri signed into law tighter limits on how much communities can raise property taxes each year. And he said the Republican governor's budget proposal for this year contained a 3-percent increase in state aid for school districts, but the Democratic majority legislature's budget cut the 3 percent.
"One option the governor believes is worth examining as a possibility is the idea of providing an incentive for both sides to come to an agreement early in the process. It's not clear how one would accomplish that but that's the type of idea the governor wants to discuss with department heads," Neal said.
Late this afternoon, the state's GOP chairman, Giovanni Cicione, declared that the strikes, which are illegal in Rhode Island, are "nothing but an organized effort by the unions to break the law, and the unions have to be held accountable.”
Cicione said, "The U.S. Attorney should consider a RICO Act investigation against the NEA, Rhode Island, which is authorizing, and has authorized in the past, illegal strikes by teachers unions. The NEA involvement in these local teachers union strikes amounts to extortion, which is an explicit RICO violation.”
-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney
Posted by Andrea Panciera at 6:00 PM
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RWU names 13 new trustees in controversy's wake
BRISTOL -- Roger Williams University today announced the election of 13 new trustees, who the university says are reflective of its core values and "the increasingly diverse and global nature of the world for which it prepares its students."
Their selection comes after a harsh spotlight was cast on the school and its board by the uttering of a racial epithet during a May board meeting by its former longtime chairman, Ralph R. Papitto.
Papitto used the "n" word during a discussion about the makeup of the new board, then worked behind the scenes to remove three board members who called for him to step down.
After a board meeting in July, he did step down, and in the wake, traces of his name -- including on the law school he helped fund -- have been removed from campus.
In a press release today, the school emphasizes that its new board members are significantly diverse, reflecting both females and ethnic groups, as well as community leaders.
Roger Williams President Roy J. Nirschel said, “Along with a larger and much more diverse board, I am pleased that the trustees have embraced term limits, a conflict of interest policy and an even stronger committee structure.”
Newly elected members of the board, in alphabetical order, are:
• Timothy E. Baxter: Executive Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Samsung
Electronics America
• Rodney A. Butler: Tribal Council Treasurer, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation
• Luis F. Gomez: President, Promarisco, S.A.
• Denise M. Jenkins: Philanthropy Officer, Rhode Island Foundation
• Karen Johnson: General Partner, Dunlop Investments, Hedge Fund
• Jerrold L. Lavine: President, The Freeman Group
• Suzanne Magaziner: Civic Leader and Philanthropist
• Sami Nacaroglu: President, Bayraktar Holding
• Helen Ostrowski: CEO, Porter Novelli International
• Marc Spiegel: President & CEO, Academic Centers Abroad, LLC
• Walter R. Stone, Esq.: Senior Partner, Adler, Pollock & Sheehan
• Hala Taweel: President, University of the Middle East Project
• Arlene Violet, Esq.: Former Rhode Island Attorney General
Completing the board are: Richard L. Bready, chairman and CEO of Nortek, who was elected chairman to replace Papitto last May, and trustees David J. Calabro, Gary R. Chapman, Bradley P. Dorman, Mario J. Gabelli, J. Lynn Singleton and Robert F. Stoico, who were reappointed at that time.
Posted by Andrea Panciera at 5:46 PM
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Parking ban in Wickford for gas-line work
NORTH KINGSTOWN — A parking ban on Main Street in Wickford from 6 a.m to 6 p.m. tomorrow will allow crews to start saw cutting on a project to replace a gas line.
Police Capt. Charles Brennan said the road will remain passable at all times and that emergency vehicles will be able to get through. He said cones will be in place and officers are assigned to keep traffic flowing, but that parked cars must be removed by 6 a.m. and won’t be allowed to return until 6 p.m.
Residents can park on other streets or in the municipal lot, Brennan said.
-- Journal South County bureau
Posted by Andrea Panciera at 5:22 PM
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Alert: Tiverton schools will reopen tomorrow
Tiverton schools will reopen tomorrow after lawyers for the district and the teachers union this afternoon negotiated a consent order following today's strike.
Under the agreement, teachers will go back to work and a majority of the School Committee, including either chairperson Denise deMedeiros or vice chair Michael Burk, will attend all mediation sessions with the union, which begin tomorrow night.
"A productive day," said Superior Court Judge Vincent Ragosta, who worked with both sides behind closed doors throughout the day in Newport Superior Court.
John Harrington has been appointed the mediator.
-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with reports from Journal staff writer Gina Macris
Posted by Mike McKinney at 4:59 PM
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Update: 2 arraigned in Charlestown stabbings
SOUTH KINGSTOWN --Two men were arraigned in District Court in South Kingstown this morning in connection with stabbings in Charlestown Saturday night that sent two people to the hospital.
Marcus D. Burrell, 37, of the Shannock Village section of Richmond, and Brent A. Roberts, 22, of Narragansett, are both being held on $100,000 bail for assault and attempted murder. (An earlier report had incorrectly said Burrell was a Charlestown resident.)
Sadie Sullivan, 22, of Narragansett, and Sean Wilk, 26, of Charlestown, were both being treated at Rhode Island Hospital.
Wilk, who was in critical condition after being stabbed six times, has been upgraded to fair. Sullivan, who was stabbed in the innner thigh, was released yesterday, a hospital spokeswoman said today.
The police say the suspects and the victims were at a party on Sand Plain Road in Charlestown Saturday when a fight broke out, leading to the stabbings.
-- projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson, with reports from Journal staff writer Maria Armental
Both suspects left the party in Burrell’s car, according to the police. Burrell was arrested by the Richmond police, and Roberts was picked up by the Narragansett police as he was boarding a boat for his job as a fisherman.
Lt. Jack Shippee said evidence linking Burrell to the fight was found in his car, but Shippee wouldn’t comment further on the nature of the evidence.
Burrell and Roberts are scheduled for a screening Oct. 2.
Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 4:01 PM
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New trucking registration laws to add revenue
Nearly 6,000 Rhode Island companies that operate trucks and livery vehicles will come under new federal registration rules this fall as a result of changes in interstate transportation laws.
Nearly two years in the offing, the rules going into effect Nov. 1 bring businesses once exempt from federal registration requirements under the same rules that govern long-haul truckers.
The change means thousands of previously exempt companies or contractors will have to register their vehicles with the Rhode Island Division of Public Utilities and Carriers, according to an agency spokesman.
“There was a whole set of obstacles to getting this thing up and running,” said Terry Mercer, an associate administrator at the PUC.
The new program will replace the Single State Registration System -- a state-administered program that ensures interstate “for-hire” motor carriers operate properly. About $110 million, in all, was collected by the states in 2004, which is being used as the baseline for the new system’s revenue estimates.
The new rules increase the number of vehicles that fall under the registration requirements by including private fleets -- such as those a retailer might use to ferry goods between a warehouse and its stores, leasing companies, freight brokers and freight forwarders.
By spreading around the costs, the rules lower fees for interstate haulers without cutting into the revenue states use to maintain roadways and transportation programs. Registrations in Rhode Island are expected to generate $2.4 million in the first year.
-- Journal staff writer Paul Grimaldi
“For-hire” trucking companies, such as FedEx Corp. and JB Hunt Transport Services Inc., complained for years that other companies were getting a free pass on the nation’s roadways because some businesses were not required to register vehicles that traveled across state borders.
Their push resulted in passage of the Unified Carrier Registration Act of 2005, which altered the system for collecting and distributing fees that truckers pay to haul goods around the nation.
The new rules require any company that operates a truck with a gross vehicle weight of at least 10,000 pounds or an 11-passenger vehicle (including the driver) that crosses state lines to register with the agency that oversees haulers in its home state. Trailers are considered a separate vehicle from the tractor cabs that pull them.
As many as 6,000 companies or contractors in Rhode Island may be affected by the rules, Mercer said.
The annual registration fee varies according to the number of vehicles a company operates. For instance, companies with one or two trucks would pay $39 annually, while one with between 100 and 1,000 trucks would pay $3,840. The single amount would cover all trucks in a company’s fleet.
To push compliance with the new rules, the federal government has allowed states to increase fines for unregistered trucks. The fine in Rhode Island will increase from $75 per truck to $300.
Posted by Mike McKinney at 3:58 PM
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Teen pleads not guilty to Attleboro fatal stabbing
ATTLEBORO, Mass. -- A New Bedford teenager charged with fatally stabbing an Attleboro man over the weekend pleads not guilty to murder.
Prosecutors say 17-year-old Robert Pelletier stabbed 18-year-old David Morales once in the abdomen after some sort of a confrontation on Saturday night outside of Morales’ apartment.
Morales was taken to Sturdy Memorial Hospital where he later died.
At the arraignment in Attleboro District Court, Pelletier’s lawyer claimed his client acted in self-defense.
Pelletier was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail. The case remains under investigation. Pelletier is due back in court on Sept. 20.
-- The Associated Press
Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 2:56 PM
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Derderian nearly done with community service
Jeffrey Derderian appears to be on track with his community service obligations, Judge Francis J. Darigan Jr. said after reviewing Derderian’s second community service update.
In updates filed with the Superior Court today, the Phoenix Society – an organization that works with burn victims – and West Greenwich Fire and Rescue – verified that Derderian had completed 446 hours of community service.
In 2006, Derderian was sentenced to 500 hours of community service after pleading no contest to involuntary manslaughter after the 2003 Station Nightclub Fire that killed 100 people.
Attorney General Patrick Lynch in April said Derderian's 70 hours of community service over seven months was "inadequate."
See full coverage of the Station Nightclub Fire.
Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 2:04 PM
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Patrick wants 'couple of weeks' for casino decision
BOSTON -- Gov. Deval Patrick says he needs about two more weeks to decide whether he'll support casino gambling in Massachusetts.
The governor's support is key for two Indian tribes seeking to build resort casinos in the state. Other proposals include commercial casinos.
When asked how long before he'll announce his position, Patrick responded: "Give me a couple of weeks."
-- The Associated Press
The governor said that during his nearly three-week-long vacation in western Massachusetts, he finished reading an internal report on the positives and negatives of casinos.
But he said he still wants to talk to experts on both sides of the issue before making a decision.
Earlier this year, Patrick had indicated he'd decide by Labor Day.
Posted by Jack Perry at 1:53 PM
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Traffic Update: Accident cleared on Route 95
An early afternoon accident that closed two right lanes on Route 95 at exit 23 has been cleared, the state Transportation Management Center reported at 1:30 p.m.
That is the exit to Route 146 and state offices.
For updated traffic information, visit the DOT's traffic advisory Web site or see shots of traffic via the DOT's traffic cameras.
Posted by Mike McKinney at 1:32 PM
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Tiverton asking court to block teacher's strike/ Photo

Journal photo / Bill Murphy
Middle school teacher Kristen Destremps and Amy Mullen, president of the teachers union in Tiverton, picket this morning near Tiverton High School at the corner of North Brayton and Bulgamarsh Roads.
Lawyers for the Tiverton schools are in court today in a bid to block the strike planned for that district.
Lawyers were meeting with the judge in chambers today. The meeting was scheduled to resume at 2 p.m. after a lunch break.
Teachers in Tiverton had new-teacher orientation last Tuesday, and classes Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The union voted to authorize a strike Friday and called a strike yesterday after failing to reach contract agreements over the Labor Day weekend.
The teachers were walking the picket line this morning; school officials told students to stay home from school today.
School was also closed in East Greenwich after teachers voted to strike.
Union officials in both towns authorized strikes last night after contract negotiations broke down in disputes over salaries and health care.
But in Burrillville, where teachers did not report to work on the first day of school last Wednesday, they have agreed to return to their classrooms today. However, school will start with a one-hour delay.
Mediated talks were held throughout the weekend for the Exeter-West Greenwich school system, which did go back to school on schedule last week. They have agreed to meet again this Wednesday.
In Tiverton, about 80 teachers were picketing at 7:40 this morning near Tiverton High School, at the corner of North Brayton and Bulgamarsh Roads.
The teachers planned to picket until 9:30 a.m. and return at 4 p.m.
A Journal wrapup of talks is available by checking on projo.com's Education page.
-- With reports from Journal staff writer David Scharfenberg, Gina Macris and Journal photographer Bill Murphy
Posted by Jack Perry at 1:31 PM
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Update: No school in E. Greenwich again tomorrow
EAST GREENWICH -- Schools will be closed again tomorrow in East Greenwich because of the teachers' strike, the schools superintendent said today.
The first scheduled day of school for the district had been today. Both sides are to return to mediated talks tomorrow evening.
This morning, Allison Burke Perrelli took her daughter, Julia Perrelli, to the bus stop, only to have her neighbor call out from the window, “There’s no school today; the teachers are on strike.”
After 30 hours of discussion over the Labor Day weekend, teachers and the East Greenwich school committee were not able to come to an agreement over terms of the teachers’ contract.
“I think it’s very unfortunate,” Supt. Charles E. Meyers said late this morning. Students were looking forward to their first day of school, he said. “It’s too bad that this type of enthusiasm for learning has to be curtailed.”
School Committee Chairwoman Suzanne McGee Cienki said the committee was ready to pursue “all legal options available at this point,” including taking the teachers to court and, if that didn’t work, having them arrested.
“The union is fully aware of the financial parameters that we are operating under with this new tax cap,” she said. “They want to use this contract negotiation as a way to put pressure on the General Assembly to come up with a new funding formula.”
-- projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson and Michael P. McKinney, with reports from Journal staff writer Lisa Vernon-Sparks
Posted by Mike McKinney at 12:53 PM
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Burrillville schools open for now
The Burrillville School District's request for a court order compelling teachers back to school has been continued.
Teachers -- who had voted to strike -- returned to the classroom an hour late this morning after Judge Netti Vogel's direction Friday that teachers and school officials to return to the bargaining table.
Contract negotiations have not been settled.
Vogel said if the teachers do decide to strike, she would again entertain the school district's request for a court order.
--projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson, with reports from Journal staff writer Mark Reynolds
Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 12:27 PM
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Two ex-nursing home officials due to plead in court
PROVIDENCE -- Two former Hillside Health Center officials are expected to plead tomorrow to state charges of embezzlement, conspiracy to commit embezzlement and patient neglect, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch's office said today.
Antonio L. Giordano, 33, and John Montecalvo, 68, are expected to makes their pleas in an agreement by live video conference from federal prison in Fort Dix, N.J., where they are serving federal sentences, according to a news release from the Rhode Island Judiciary.
The attorney general's office said it would not announce details of the plea agreement.
The pleas will be accepted in courtroom 9 of Providence County Superior Court at 1 p.m. after the men's indictments on 35 counts each in August last year. That courtroom is typically used for video conferences involving inmates at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston.
A majority of the state charges accuse the two men of directing federal money to the mortgage company and then loaning the money back to Hillside at twice the interest rate the federal government was charging.
The indictment also asserts the men in January 2002 took a $400,000 Medicaid check and did not deposit it into the nursing home's operating account but, rather, deposited it for personal use into an account at the mortgage company.
Montecalvo is alleged to have "intentionally failed to provide treatment and care" to 10 patients at Hillside between September 2003 and March 2004, the state indictment said.
Giordano, who operated the home, and Montecalvo, his chief financial officer, were sentenced last year to federal charges. Giordano admitted in the federal case last year that he diverted more than $780,000 in federal money to a company run by his daughter.
Giordano was sentened in the federal case to 2 1/2 years in federal prison and Montecalvo to two years.
-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with Journal archival reports
The judiciary statement said the televised court action will save taxpayers the money it would have cost to bring the defendants to Rhode Island for the hearing abd back to Fort Dix.
Hillside Health Center went into receivership in March 2004.
Posted by Mike McKinney at 12:21 PM
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Whitehouse, community groups want end to war/ Photo

Journal photo / Bill Murphy
U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (left) joins members of Ocean State Action this morning calling for an immediate end to the war in Iraq at a press conference at the State House.
U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse joined a coalition of community groups this morning calling for an immediate end to the Iraq war and a redistribution of the $10 billion being spent there each month toward domestic programs.
Whitehouse joined members of Ocean State Action on the steps of the State House to announce the release of a report, prepared by the USAction Education Fund, which breaks down the cost of the war to each state.
The reports shows that the war has so far cost $456 billion and that Rhode Island’s share of what Whitehouse called "the Bush administration’s misplaced priorities" amounted to $1.8 billion.
That money, Ocean State Action asserted, could provide healthcare to 799,661 uninsured children -- or 39 times over the number of uninsured children in Rhode Island.
The report, filled with cost comparisons of what the war money could be used for, also says that the cost of restoring Rhode Island federal kindergarten through grade 12 education funding -- about $18.8 million -- equates to about 82 minutes of Iraq war spending.
-- Journal staff writer Tom Mooney
Posted by Jack Perry at 11:13 AM
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Gas prices fall a little more
Gasoline prices in Rhode Island have fallen for the seventh straight week, according to AAA Southern New England.
The average price for a gallon of regular, unleaded gasoline is $2.679 at the self-service pump, a drop of one cent since last week, according to AAA's weekly survey.
The price has dropped 19 cents in the past month.
The average price was 18 cents more, at $2.859, at this time last year.
Posted by Jack Perry at 10:50 AM
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Montalbano's ethics case continued until Sept. 14
PROVIDENCE -- The ethics case against Senate President Joseph Montalbano has been continued until Sept. 14 “for the mutual benefit of all concerned.”
Neither Senate Ethics Commission lawyer Jason Grammit, nor Montalbano’s lawyer Max Wistow, would elaborate on the decision to continue the case.
Montalbano, a North Providence Democrat, is accused of improperly supporting a referendum for a casino in West Warwick at the same time he was doing legal work for the town.
The Ethics Commission has agreed not to pursue its hearing until after the 14th as well.
Wistow says the Commission shouldn’t be allowed to prosecute the Senate president while there are still questions about the constitutionality of the case.
The Ethics Commission disagrees.
-- projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson, with reports from Journal staff writer Steve Peoples
Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 10:15 AM
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Construction to close section of 95 this week
Various lanes on Interstate 95 northbound between exits 16 (Route 10) and 20 (Interstate 195) will be closed from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. today through Thursday.
Alternating left and right lane closures can also be expected from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. on I-95 northbound and southbound today through Thursday while the Department of Transportation workers put up a protective barrier coating.
For roadwork schedules and predicted traffic conditions throughout the state, visit the DOT traffic forecast site.
Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 8:27 AM
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East Greenwich teachers head to mediation
Teachers in Tiverton and East Greenwich will not be reporting for school this morning, but Tiverton teachers will be near Tiverton High School this morning, picketing at the corner of North Brayton and Bulgamarsh Roads.
Larry Purtill, president of the National Education Association of Rhode Island says teachers from East Greenwich are scheduled for mediation tomorrow.
Tiverton teachers have not been provided with a mediator, Purtill said this morning. He said the union will be appealing to the governor’s office for one today.
Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 7:29 AM
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Bright skies with a high of 81 degrees today
Today we're looking at bright skies and warm weather as the National Weather Service forecasts a high of 81 degrees.
Clouds should roll in tonight, and we can expect an overnight low of 53 degrees.
The sun should reappear tomorrow, but temperatures will be milder, with a high in the mid 70s.
For more weather and regular updates, see projo.com/weather.
Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 7:01 AM
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Strikes cancel school in Tiverton, East Greenwich
Teachers in Tiverton and East Greenwich have voted to strike today, and officials are telling students to stay home from school.
Union officials in both towns authorized strikes last night after contract negotiations broke down in disputes over salaries and health care.
But in Burrillville, where teachers did not report to work on the first day of school last Wednesday, they have agreed to return to their classrooms today. However, school will start with a one-hour delay.
Mediated talks were held throughout the weekend for the Exeter-West Greenwich school system, which did go back to school on schedule last week. They have agreed to meet again this Wednesday.
A Journal wrapup of talks is available by checking on projo.com's Education page.
-- With reports from Journal staff writer David Scharfenberg
Posted by Andrea Panciera at 7:01 AM
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Today's front page
Today's front page features photographs and a story reporting that many Rhode Island college students are returning to school to find new dormitories, cafeterias or fitness facilities as part of a nationwide trend to upgrade facilities.
Download a copy of today's front page in .pdf format.
Posted by Jack Perry at 7:00 AM
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