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October 1, 2007

Tonight: Tourzilla stomps into Providence

Tourzilla arrives at Lupo's tonight at 7

Slated to play are Boys Like Girls, All Time Low, The Audition and We the Kings. $15.

For events with perhaps less-threatening names, visit projo.com's Lifebeat page and our calendar.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 6:50 PM | Comment

Man sentenced in Central Falls triple slaying

A Pawtucket man was sentenced to two consecutive life prison sentences today for the murder of his estranged girlfriend, her new boyfriend and her daughter.

Adelino Duarte, 40, formerly of 659 Main St., admitted to killing estranged girlfriend Elizabeth Orellana, her boyfriend and her daughter in Central Falls in August 2006, Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch's office announced.

Duarte will serve at least 40 years before parole eligibility.

“In the matter of a chilling few short minutes, this enraged defendant destroyed two families and made orphans out of Elizabeth Orellana’s four surviving children,” Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch said in the statement. “As appropriate as Judge Krause’s sentence is, today’s sentencing only ends the legal aspects of this brutal multiple homicide. Elizabeth’s survivors will be in our thoughts and prayers as they must contend with a much more difficult sentence — a life without their mom.”

Duarte pleaded guilty to four of the seven counts for which he was indicted in December 2006: three counts of murder and one count of discharging a firearm while committing a crime of violence, death resulting.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

In exchange for the plea and the two consecutive life sentences, the state dismissed one count of breaking and entering and merged two additional charges of discharging a firearm while committing a crime of violence, death resulting, into the gun charge to which Duarte pleaded.

Prosecutors Maureen Keough and Daniel Guglielmo would have presented at trial that on Aug. 18, 2006, between 1 and 2 a.m., Duarte went to the home of Elizabeth Orellana at 712 High St. in Central Falls. He had shared the second-floor apartment with Orellana and her five children until about one to two months before the crimes.

Duarte went into the apartment, found Orellana’s two 16-year-old daughters in the living room. The girls saw him carrying a gun, later found to be a 0.25-caliber Raven Firearm handgun. Duarte found Orellana with her new boyfriend, Octavio Calcagno.

The two girls ran to different rooms, tried to call for help. Duarte shot Orellana and Calcagno each one time in the head at close range.

A third daughter, Kristal Duarte, believed to have been asleep in a second bedroom when the incident started, encountered Duarte in the living room. She was shot once in the head.

Central Falls police responded within minutes of the shooting and found Duarte with the gun in the apartment.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 6:46 PM | Comment

Sign of what's ahead? Celona now in R.I. prison

John Celona is back in town, a sign that the long-running federal corruption probe of the Rhode Island State House is heating up.

The convicted former senator from North Providence, whose State House double-dealing sparked the sprawling investigation known as Operation Dollar Bill, has been quietly moved from a federal prison in western Pennsylvania to the Donald W. Wyatt Detention Center in Central Falls.

In March, Celona began serving a 2-1/2-year prison term after pleading guilty to using his public office for private gain and agreeing to cooperate with the authorities against some of his former legislative colleagues. Celona’s assistance, a prosecutor told a judge in January, had spawned 14 "active investigations’’ of 7 politicians and 7 corporations.

From Blue Cross to Beacon Mutual, from CVS to Citizens Bank, the investigation is being handled by a task force encompassing the FBI, the Rhode Island State Police, criminal investigators from the IRS and U.S. Department of Labor, as well as one-fifth of the resources of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Providence.

Five months after Celona reported to a low-security prison in Loretto, Pa., he was transported back to Rhode Island around Aug. 7 by federal authorities, U.S. Marshal Burton Stallwood confirmed today.

U.S. Atty. Robert Clark Corrente declined to comment on Celona. But his homecoming likely means that investigators need to talk to him, or have him testify before the grand jury, as their efforts on a number of fronts progress.

Celona’s lawyer, William C. Dimitri, said that Celona is happy to be closer to home and family, even if it is a high-security facility for accused drug dealers and others awaiting trial, as well as convicts waiting to be sentenced.

"He’s doing fine, hanging in there,’’ said Dimitri. "Obviously, it’s easier for him to see his children and his wife, and that’s some comfort. He’s anxious to finish his sentence and get home to his family.’’

Dimitri declined comment on the reasons for Celona’s transfer, and said that he has no idea when he might be sent back to a federal prison, or even whether he would be returned to the same prison.

Celona, 54, whose whereabouts have previously been identified on the Bureau of Prison’s Web site as Loretto, is now listed on the "inmate locator’’ as being "in transit.’’ His scheduled release date is March 28, 2009.

Extra: A special report on Celona's case and its fallout.

Read more in tomorrow's Journal and on projo.com ...

-- Journal staff writer Mike Stanton

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 6:38 PM | Comment

Johnston mayor wants lawmakers to reconvene

JOHNSTON -- The Rhode Island legislature should reconvene and pass a tax incentive package that was derailed during the assembly’s 2007 session, Mayor Joseph M. Polisena said today.

The proposed tax incentives were for A. Duie Pyle, a Pennsylvania trucking company setting up shop in Johnston. However, the proposal was blocked by Sen. Stephen D. Alves, D-West Warwick, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee.

On Sunday, The Journal reported that the FBI is investigating whether Alves killed the measure to punish Polisena after he decided that Alves, a stockbroker, would not be involved with the investment of various Johnston pension funds.

“This is outrageous,” Polisena said.

The legislature can vote to give Pyle the tax incentives if it should reconvene to override other legislation vetoed by Governor Carcieri, Polisena said. Otherwise, lawmakers should come back to pass the measure for Pyle, he said.

“It’s a fairness issue,” said Polisena.

A town lawyer is drafting a resolution that asks the legislature to take action, he said. The resolution will be presented to the Town Council for approval at the council’s meeting on Oct. 9, Polisena said.

The trucking company, A. Duie Pyle, is still coming to Johnston, because it had already committed to the project before the legislation died, its chairman said.

-- Journal staff writer Mark Reynolds

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 5:26 PM | Comment

Update: 1 killed, gang leader hurt in separate shootings

PROVIDENCE -- One man was killed in a parked car early today, while a second man was wounded in a separate shooting in what the police suspect is the latest volley in a ongoing feud between rival street gangs.

Police Maj. Stephen Campbell said the murder victim, Luis Abreu, was fatally shot as he sat in the driver’s seat of his black BMW sedan outside his first-floor apartment at 282 Ohio Ave., in the city’s Washington Park neighborhood.

The shooting took place about 12:15 a.m., and Abreu was pronounced dead at the scene. He is the 10th person murdered in the city this year.

Campbell said that police do not suspect that Abreu’s murder was linked to the shooting of Nirut "Shorty’’ Seng, 21, of 45 Hanover St., in the city’s West End. Seng, who the police described as a leader in the Young Bloods street gang, was shot in the buttocks about 30 minutes after Abreu was killed.

The police say that he was sprayed with gunfire by a passing car as he climbed the front steps of his apartment building.

Seng, who was taken by rescue to Rhode Island Hospital, has refused to cooperate with detectives and declined to file a complaint with the police department.

The scenes of the shootings are about two miles apart. No arrests have been made in either case.

Detective Sgt. Michael P. Wheeler, who heads the Providence Police Gang Unit, is very familiar with Seng and the ongoing feud between the Young Bloods and the Hanover Street Boyz.

The police gang unit has been monitoring the actions of both groups for months. Both gangs are comprised of Asian, Hispanic, white and black youths who live primarily in the city’s West End and in Cranston.

-- Journal staff writer W. Zachary Malinowski

Last Friday, at about 2 a.m., police responded to 74 Hanover St. for a report of shots fired. The police gang unit learned that a member of the Young Bloods had moved into that address last month.

On Sept. 8, Seng was arrested after police spotted him on the porch of 45 Hanover St. at 12:30 a.m. holding what appeared to be a sawed-off shotgun.

Members of the gang unit, who were in an unmarked police car, bounded up the stairs of the address and handcuffed Seng. They found a .loaded 12-gauge Mossberg shotgun with what appeared to a be a sawed-off barrel. The police also seized a loaded Maverick pistol from beneath a couch cushion.

Campbell said the charges were dismissed in District Court at the request of the police department after investigators determined that the shotgun was longer than the minimum length of a sawed-off shotgun. Upon further investigation, police also determined that Seng did not have a felony conviction and was within his rights to lawfully be in possession of the shotgun and the pistol.

The Providence police remain in possession of both weapons, but Campbell said that Seng could petition the department for both weapons and he would probably be allowed to retrieve them.

Seng’s address has been the site of multiple shootings this year. On Jan. 28, police responded to his 45 Hanover St. apartment for a report of shots fired.

That same day, Vicheth Klakratok, a Young Bloods gang member was beaten and murdered near the corner of Cranston and Benedict streets. Five members of the Hanover Street Boyz have been charged with Klakratok’s murder and are awaiting trial.

In August, there was an escalation of shootings in the city -- 20 overall -- and the police said that gang violence was responsible for many of the shootings. One of them occurred at 45 Hanover St. Police said that someone with a BB gun shot Jose Lopez, 18, in the chest.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 4:41 PM | Comment

Update: Rocky Point has new owners / Photo

Journal photo / Kathy Borchers
Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian discusses the deal at a press conference at Warwick City Hall today. Buyers Peter and Jim Leach are at right.

WARWICK -- The court-appointed receiver for the former Rocky Point amusement park has signed a purchase and sale agreement with a Providence developer, it was announced today.

Rocky Point Partners LLC. has agreed to buy the approximately 83 acres while the City of Warwick will buy the other 41 acres for open-space purposes, the U.S. Small Business Administration announced.

Under the agreement terms, final closing on the sale must take place on or before March 28, 2008.

Behind Rocky Points Partners, which was incorporated on Sept. 14 in papers signed by lawyer Zachary G. Darrow, is Leach Family Holdings. James and Peter Leach attended a press conference today on the sale.

Before today's announcement, the fate of the former park, well known to generations of Rhode Islanders, was approaching a deadline.

The park was such a fixture in the public's minds that it even became the subject of a recently-released documentary.

The purchase and sales agreement has been submitted to U.S. District Court, Rhode Island, for "review and disposition."

"The [Small Business Administration], as receiver, is pleased to take this latest step toward assuring an acceptable use for this valuable property," Mark S. Hayward, the SBA Rhode Island district director, said in a statement. "This is definitely a step in the right direction and we will await final approval of the U.S. District Court in order to move forward with this project."

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Cynthia Needham

Posted by Mike McKinney at 4:36 PM | Comment

Distinguished crew takes part in Bay cleanup

Journal photo / Steve Szydlowski
A crane did the heavy lifting today, as a distinguished crew watched during an event that also recognized the special efforts of two civilian sea captains.

BRISTOL -- A military landing craft butted ashore just south of Colt State Park this morning and what must be the most distinguished cleanup crew in state history jumped out and picked up plastic bottles, crumbled flotation material, and various boards and pilings.

U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, Governor Carcieri and Timothy R.E. Keeney, a deputy assistant secretary in the federal government’s oceans agency, all grabbed handfuls of refuse and threw them into a garbage container inside the 56-foot landing craft.

Then they all stood back as a crane on the landing craft pulled a beached, 20-foot section of floating dock off the shore, lifted it high in the air, and dropped it onto the garbage container.

That’s how state and federal officials celebrated renewed federal funding for the unusual public-private program that has been performing an unprecedented cleanup of Narragansett Bay with minimal staff and zero bureaucracy.

First, of course, there were the usual speeches under a tent at the water’s edge in Colt State Park.

But all focused on the two civilian sea captains, Ed Hughes and Alan Wentworth. They created Project Clean Sweep and pushed, prodded and cajoled to get state support and federal funding to use their unusual boat and all the volunteers they could round up to remove the discarded boats, bollards, piers, tires and other refuse that line the Bay’s shoreline.

Last year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gave the two $150,000 and they used it to remove 1,100 tons of refuse. They worked under the supervision of the state Department of Environmental Management, with permits from the state’s Coastal Resources Management Council and lots of help from other local and state agencies. The state’s Resource Recovery Corp. lets them discard the refuse for no charge at the state’s Central Landfill.

Today’s gathering was prompted by a new NOAA award of $170,000 -- the second highest such grant awarded to a single state.

-- Journal environment writer Peter B. Lord

Posted by Mike McKinney at 4:34 PM | Comment

Developer, Warwick to be new Rocky Point owners

WARWICK -- The court-appointed receiver for the former Rocky Point amusement park has signed a purchase and sale agreement with a Providence developer, it was announced today.

Rocky Point Partners LLC. has agreed to buy the approximately 83 acres while the City of Warwick will buy the other 41 acres, the U.S. Small Business Administration said in a news release.

Before today's announcement, the fate of the former park, well known to generations of Rhode Islanders, was approaching a deadline.

The park was such a fixture in the public's minds that it even became the subject of a recently-released documentary.

The purchase and sales agreement has been submitted to U.S. District Court, Rhode Island, for "review and disposition."

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Cynthia Needham

Posted by Mike McKinney at 3:02 PM | Comment

DOT directing motorists to podcasts for 195 updates

PROVIDENCE -- The relocation of Route 195 should drive motorists into the 21st century, and the state Department of Transportation is using a 21st-century method to signal the change.

The state DOT posted the first in a series of podcasts, multimedia files distributed over the Internet, on its Web site today to inform drivers about the Iway, which is expected to open in part by the end of this month.

The relocation project, called the Iway will provide a new interchange between Routes 95 and Route 195 in Providence across the new Providence River Bridge. Two lanes -- bringing traffic from Route 95 north onto Route 195 east -- are scheduled to open by the end of this month.

According to the DOT, the project will make it safer and easier to travel between Route 195 and Route 95. The current interchange was designed in the 1950s when 75,000 cars and trucks traveled it daily. It's now gets twice as much traffic.

The DOT has produced 12 podcasts, six in English and six in Spanish. They are like mini-documentaries running about three minutes each. The first two podcasts provide an overview on the project and then more information on design and construction. Drivers can safely travel over unfinished portions of the project, thanks to computer-generated simulation.

Dana Alexander Nolfe, chief public affairs officer for the DOT, says the department expects the podcasts to reach a younger audience, one that doesn't rely as much on traditional media.

"Teens and 20-somethings embrace technology and these podcasts will allow RIDOT to reach out to them with new media and do something no DOT has done before," she said.

She said the podcasts cost $7,500 each to produce. The department will also use traditional means, such as television and newspapers, to spread the word.

In addition to the DOT's Web site, the podcasts will be available on Blinkx, http://www.blinkx.com/, iTunes, www.apple.com/iTunes and on YouTube, YouTube.

Posted by Jack Perry at 2:15 PM | Comment

Update: High court won't hear appeal of R.I. liquor law

PROVIDENCE -- The U.S. Supreme Court on today rejected an appeal challenging a 3-year-old Rhode Island law that bans liquor sales by franchise stores.

Wine & Spirits Retailers, a company that had struck franchise agreements with several stores in the state, filed a federal lawsuit in 2004 arguing the law was unconstitutional. The company said the ban violated its right to free speech and free association.

Though state authorities enacted the law in 2004, they delayed enforcing it for two years while a legal challenge was pending. Before the nation's highest court was asked to weigh in, a federal appeals court declined to block the law from taking effect.

"At any step of the way, a court could basically invalidate the law, so we took a very measured approach to our enforcement," said Richard Berstein, a lawyer for the state Department of Business Regulation, which is responsible for enforcing the law.

The law broadened an existing ban on liquor chain stores by preventing business owners from using names that suggest their store is part of a franchise, which could give the stores a competitive advantage if consumers assumed they have a wider selection.

Berstein said the Supreme Court's decision meant the department would continue enforcing the law.

Attorneys for both sides did not immediately return calls for comment today.

Posted by Jack Perry at 2:08 PM | Comment

Expect Rte. 95 closings in Providence for re-paving

Was your ride a little rough heading into Providence on Route 95 this morning?

Well, it should be smoother soon.

On some nights this week, stretches of the highway will be closed from Exits 18 through 20 for road surface removal -- known as cold planing -- and paving beginning at 11 p.m. and running till 5:30 a.m.

Exit 18 is Thurbers Avenue and Exit 20 takes motorists on and off Route 195.

That stretch of Route 95 north will continue to be closed tonight and tomorrow night.

The stretch of Route 95 south will be closed tonight, tomorrow night and Wednesday night, and also on Friday night, the state Department of Transportation advised today.

There will be no closings Thursday night.

Drivers should expect a rough road due to the surface removals.

The DOT advises motorists to use Route 295 or Routes 6 and 10 to reconnect with Route 95 during the overnights impacted by the closings.

For traffic helpers, such as Web cams and traffic alerts, check the DOT's Traffic Center site.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 2:02 PM | Comment

Update: Power line may have badly burned man

PROVIDENCE -- A man in his early 20s was sent to Rhode Island Hospital with severe burns after possibly coming into contact with a transmission line.

The man, who has not yet been named, was burned on roughly 100 percent of his body, according to James Taylor, chief of communications for the Providence Fire Department.

David Graves, a spokesman for National Grid, said the company was sending investigators to the scene, on Stanhope St.

The initial incident was called into MacGregor Street, which intersects Stanhope between Route 146 and Charles Street.

The nature of the accident has not yet been officially determined, but Graves said it appears that the man – who is not a National Grid employee – may have come in contact with the power company’s equipment.

A transmission line runs through that area, he said.

A transmission line, by definition, carries more than 69,000 volts, Graves said. The standard voltage in a U.S. household socket is 120 volts.

Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 1:31 PM | Comment

Man gets more than 15 years for drug trafficking

PROVIDENCE -- A Providence man with two-dozen past convictions has been sentenced to more than 15 1/2 years in federal prison for crack cocaine trafficking, U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente's office announced today.

Ronald Hill, 35, sold crack cocaine in Providence on two occasions last year, a news release says. Hill's two-dozen prior convictions included five drug convictions. He was sentenced Friday as a career offender by Judge William E. Smith in U.S. District Court, Providence. Other convictions included domestic assault, drug possession and drug trafficking.

Hill pleaded guilty in January to two counts of distributing cocaine base. At the plea hearing, prosecutor Sandra R. Beckner said the government could show that on Sept. 11, 2006, Hill sold a gram of crack and, on Sept. 18, he sold nearly 10 grams.

Providence police monitored both sales, the U.S. Attorney's office said.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney at 12:21 PM | Comment

Gas prices up for second consecutive week

Gasoline prices in Rhode Island have increased for the second week in a row, according to AAA Southern New England.

The average price for a gallon of regular, unleaded gasoline has increased two cents, to $2.699 at the self-service pump, according to AAA's weekly survey.

The price also increased two cents last week, AAA said.

Rhode Island is still 10 cents below the national average.

Posted by Jack Perry at 12:08 PM | Comment

Update: Belo to split into TV, newspaper companies

DALLAS -- Belo Corp., the owner of The Providence Journal, says it will spin off its newspaper division to create separate newspaper and television companies.

The new company, to be called A.H. Belo Corp., will also own the Dallas Morning News and The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif.

The company said A. H. Belo will also own and manage the various Web sites associated with these properties, as well as certain niche products and direct mail and commercial printing businesses.

A. H. Belo's combined newspaper and related online businesses reach a total audience of 3.7 million people. These businesses currently have annual revenues of approximately $750 million and about 3,800 employees.

Robert W. Decherd, currently chairman and chief executive officer of Belo Corp., will become chairman, president and CEO of A. H. Belo, and non-executive chairman of Belo Corp.

A. H. Belo will be debt-free upon completion of the spin-off.

The Dallas-based media company says the spin-off will be made through a tax-free distribution of new A.H. Belo shares to Belo Corporation shareholders in early 2008. Belo says it expects to spin-off to be completed in the first quarter of 2008.

"As a separate public company focused exclusively on newspapers and online news and information," Decherd said, "A. H. Belo will be better able to respond to the diverse and rapidly-evolving needs of customers in the local markets it serves, and with no debt, the company will have the financial flexibility to compete in this challenging operating environment and return cash to shareholders through an attractive recurring annual dividend yield."

At the effective date of the spin-off, the company's release today said Belo Corp., with approximately 3,200 employees, will be the "largest pure-play publicly-traded television station company in the nation."

By late morning, Belo stock had gone up $2.64, to $20 per share. Check the latest price here.

Read the dallasnews.com report on the decision.

--- With reports from the Associated Press

Belo will own and operate 20 television stations (including ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CW and MyNetwork TV affiliates) reaching 14 percent of U.S. television households, and their associated Web sites, in 15 markets across the U.S.

Nearly all Belo stations rank first or second in their local market based on audience reach. Belo operates 9 stations in 7 of the top 25 markets in the nation, with 6 stations located in the top-15 markets of Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, Seattle/Tacoma and Phoenix.

Belo will also own two 24-hour regional cable news channels: Northwest Cable News (NWCN) and Texas Cable News (TXCN). NWCN is the nation's second-largest regional cable news channel, reaching 2.1 million households in the Pacific Northwest. TXCN is Texas' only regional cable news channel, reaching more than 1.8 million homes. Belo will also retain ownership of two additional news channels and will continue to operate two others through partnerships.

Dunia A. Shive, currently president and chief operating officer of Belo Corp., will become president and CEO of Belo Corp.

Posted by Peter Phipps at 11:45 AM | Comment

Mass Gov. Patrick to speak at Brown tomorrow

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is coming to town.

The Democrat will deliver the Frank Licht Lecture on Contemporary Issues tomorrow evening at Salomon 101, on the main Green, off Waterman Street.

The lecture, titled “An Evening with Deval Patrick,” will be free and open to the general public. It is sponsored by the Taubman Center for Public Policy.

Patrick has recently made news with his plan for three full-scale gambling casinos in Massachussets, which has left some wondering what the impact would be on neighboring Rhode Island, where voters have defeated proposals for such operations.

Patrick was elected last year with 55 percent of the general vote. The Chicago native and Harvard Law School graduate worked for former President Clinton as the Assistant U.S. Attorney General for Civil Rights, and for the Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta as Executive Vice President.

The lecture begins at 7 p.m.

Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 11:26 AM | Comment

Feds giving R.I. $170,000 to clean Narragansett Bay

The state Department of Environmental Management and Clean the Bay, a non-profit organization, are expected to receive a $170,000 federal grant today at Colt State Park in Bristol.

Gov. Carcieri will join federal, state and local officials at the park to discuss Project Clean Sweep, a state effort to clean large marine debris from Narragansett Bay.

The grant, from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, is intended to help the program continue.

Carcieri, NOAA Deputy Assistant Secretary Tim Keeney and other officials will take a tour of the Bay and the cleanup operation on a Clean the Bay landing craft.

Also slated to attend the event, which begins at 10 a.m., are DEM Director W. Michael Sullivan, Sen. Jack Reed and Rep. Patrick Kennedy.

Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 9:08 AM | Comment

2 shootings, 1 fatal, early today in Providence

One person is dead, and another was injured after two separate shootings early this morning in Providence.

One man is dead after being shot while he was in a vehicle near 290 Ohio Ave. in the city’s Washington Park neighborhood, just after midnight, according to the Providence police.

A half hour later, another man, also 21, was shot in the left buttocks near 45 Hanover St., about two miles away. He was taken to Rhode Island Hospital, according to Providence Fire Chief of Communications James Taylor.

The police have not released the names of the victims, nor said whether the two shootings were related.

Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 7:58 AM | Comment

Special election Dec. 18 for Crowley's seat

PROVIDENCE -- A special election to fill the seat of the late Newport state Rep. Paul Crowley will be Dec. 18, Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis has announced.

A primary will be Nov. 13, if necessary.

Rhode Island’s general laws give the Secretary of State the authority to set special elections under certain circumstances, according to Mollis. Crowley’s death last week with more than half his term remaining is "one of the triggers in the law," Mollis said.

“Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, his friends and all the people he represented so well over the years,” said Mollis. “Our priority is making it easier to vote. We selected a date that met the letter of the law as well as encouraged the highest voter turnout possible given the challenge of the upcoming holiday season.”

Posted by Jack Perry at 7:02 AM | Comment

A clear and crisp day

The National Weather Service is forecasting clear, sunny skies and a crisp day with a high near 69 degrees.

Tonight's low should be about 52 with a calm, south wind.

Tomorrow's looking a little warmer, with partly cloudy skies and a high in the mid 70s.

For more weather and regular updates, see projo.com/weather.

Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 7:01 AM | Comment

Today's front page

Today's front page features coverage of a statewide disaster drill at the Rhode Island Convention Center that was at the center of attention last week when the Providence firefighters union threatened to picket the drill because of contract problems.

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

Posted by Jack Perry at 7:00 AM | Comment