The night will start with the first concert of the town-sponsored Monday Night Jams concert series, to be held at the Town Beach, 365 Atlantic Ave., from 6 to 8 p.m.

This week's event features local favorite "RI Storm," whose members have reunited for this event.

At 9 p.m., the Misquamicut Business Association will present a free fireworks display at the Wuskenau Town Beach on Atlantic Avenue.

The display can be seen from any point on Misquamicut beach.

For additional information call 401-322-1026 or visit the association's Web site.

Raindate is July 13.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A bank-robbery suspect accused of trying to run down a Rhode Island State Police sergeant Thursday night in Providence is being held without bail following his arraignment Friday in District Court, Providence.

The police say Darrin A. Gray, 43, of Cumberland, drove at Sgt. Donald Devine when Devine and other officers tried to arrest Gray at a gas station Thursday night at Chalkstone and River avenues in Mount Pleasant.

As is customary in District Court, Gray entered no plea to felony charges of assault with a dangerous weapon (his vehicle), felony possession of cocaine, resisting arrest, possession of a knife over three inches long, three counts of possession of a "bludgeon," eluding the police and driving on a suspended license.

State Police Lt. James Demers said Cumberland police had obtained an arrest warrant against Gray on second-degree robbery and assault with intent to commit a felony charges in connection with a bank robbery in Cumberland Tuesday.

Gray was on bail on a February felony charge out of Cranston of receiving stolen goods.

Bail was set on the current charges, but Gray was ordered held without bail as a violator on the charge of receiving stolen goods. A violation hearing was scheduled for July 17.

The state police began pursuing Gray after the Cumberland department asked the state's Violent Fugitive Task Force for help, Demers said Friday morning.

Thursday night, half a dozen undercover officers with the fugitive task force converged at a Shell gas station around 7:45 p.m., Demers said.

Col. Brendan P. Doherty, the state police superintendent, said officers were conducting surveillance when they saw Gray pull into the gas station.

"He's (Devine) a short distance away from the car and he's yelling, 'Police! Police! Police!' " Demers said. "Darrin Gray does not stop. ... There wasn't a whole lot of room to get out, and he was clearly not stopping. He was going to get out of the parking lot one way or the other."

Devine shot twice, missing Gray and his car. Officers recovered the casings but are still investigating where the bullets lodged, said Doherty, the state police superintendent.

Gray kept driving onto Academy Avenue, where he headed south toward Olneyville. Uniform state police officers joined the search, as did the Providence police, Demers said. In all, perhaps 35 officers were involved, Demers said.

Gray stopped the Jeep and jumped out in Olneyville, near the Freeway Car Wash, Demers said. Uniformed officers who had been chasing Gray in a cruiser ran after him and arrested him by the car wash, according to the state police.

He was held overnight to be arraigned Friday morning.

Devine, a 23-year-veteran of the state police, remains on duty, said Col. Doherty.

At this afternoon's press conference, Doherty, the state police superintendent, said the state police believe Devine acted within guidelines in shooting at Gray.

"There was an imminent threat that he (Devine) was going to be hit," Doherty said.

A police officer or any person who is confronted with deadly force or grave bodily harm has a right to defend himself with deadly force, said Matthew Dawson, deputy chief of the criminal unit in the Rhode Island Attorney General's Office.

As is protocol, however, the shooting will be investigated. "Whether or not a grand jury will be involved is an open question," Dawson said.

This story was originally published at 8:30 a.m. and was updated at 10:29 and 11:15 a.m., 12:57 p.m., and 2:57 p.m.

But many people will continue to see their premiums go up this fall, as last year's rate increase kicks in when they renew their policies.

While some businesses will get a reprieve from rate increases of up to 16 percent, that may only be temporary. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island, one of the state's largest insurers, said it is not freezing rates. Rather, using rate factors previously approved by the health commissioner, the company said it was going to raise rates for large group customers by 9 percent and small group customers by 7 percent. And it plans to seek more increases before the end of the year.

The other two companies involved are Tufts Health Plan and United Health Care of New England. Koller last month rejected the increases and asked the companies to withdraw them.

The state Department of Labor and Training has asked for a $40 million line of credit to cover those costs for the next three months.

Such lines of credit carry no interest costs under the U.S. American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and they are approved automatically, so recipients should not see any delay in their payments, said DLT spokeswoman Laura Hart.

In March, DLT received $75 million to carry it through May.

Hart said the state didn't have to apply for a loan in June because it was able to tap the quarterly unemployment insurance tax payments made by the state's 32,500 employers this spring.

The tax on businesses ranges from a low of 1.9 percent for companies whose workers seldom make unemployment claims, to 10 percent for firms that lay off or fire frequently. The tax applies to the first $18,000 paid to an employee, an amount that fluctuates annually, depending on whether the fund needs replenishing.

As of Thursday, the balance of the state unemployment insurance trust fund stood at just under $15.3 million. When the state borrowed money in March, it stood at $23,609,703.

The fund fluctuates depending on the timetable for paying out the claims. For the week ending June 20, the Department had 22,000 claims for basic unemployment, not including the extended benefits programs.

It paid out $34 million worth of such claims in May.

Thirteen other states have also applied for the interest-free line of credit from the Federal Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund.

Before the current recession, Rhode Island had to borrow from the feds to cover its unemployment costs from 1975 to 1980. At the time, the jobless rate was also in the double digits, the state had to borrow a total of $129.4 million. The money was paid back by 1984.

gemery@projo.com / (401)277-7442

It is the latest development in a simmering controversy involving a new state law -- sometimes called the "Amazon law" -- which generally requires out-of-state retailers to collect Rhode Island sales tax on purchases that are made through affiliated Web sites located in the state.

Amazon.com cut its ties with its Rhode Island-based affiliates over the new law; two other online retailers, Overstock.com, and Blue Nile have followed suit.

The whole town of Bristol is abuzz in preparation for tomorrow's big Fourth of July parade. Above, folks sit outside 912 Hope Street, where event the grass is patriotic.

Flags, bunting and more flags are displayed in homes near Thames Street.

At 331 PM EDT National Weather Service Doppler radar indicated a strong thunderstorm with the potential to produce wind gusts to 40 mph and small hail over Barrington... moving northeast at 15 mph.

* Some locations affected include... Warren... Swansea and Somerset

Posted at 2:59 p.m.:

The lights just flickered in the newsroom of The Providence Journal, followed quickly by this special statement from the National Weather Service:

Severe Thunderstorm Warning Statement as of 2:54 PM EDT on July 3, 2009

Live local radar

More weather...

The National Weather Service in Taunton has issued a

* Severe Thunderstorm Warning for...
northern Bristol County in Rhode Island...
this includes the city of Barrington...
eastern Kent County in Rhode Island...
this includes the city of Warwick...
southeastern Providence County in Rhode Island...
this includes the city of Providence...

* until 330 PM EDT

* at 254 PM EDT... National Weather Service Doppler radar indicated a
severe thunderstorm capable of producing penny size hail... and
damaging winds in excess of 60 mph. This storm was located near
West Warwick... or near Warwick... and moving northeast at 10 mph.

* Some locations in the warning include... Cranston... Warren...
Johnston and East Providence

Severe thunderstorms produce damaging winds and large hail... in
addition to deadly lightning and very heavy rain. For your safety go
indoors now and stay away from windows. Minor poor drainage flooding
is also expected. Drivers should avoid flooded roadways.

Richard Flamand, 31, is accused of three counts of possession with the intent to deliver, and two counts of possession of various drugs. When police arrested him June 1, they seized a small quantity of drugs at his house, 1,000 doses of prescription medicine, 41 grams of cocaine and a quantity of marijuana from filing cabinets at his recruiting office on Oaklawn Avenue in Cranston.

Flamand, a member of the Air National Guard's top recruiting team in New England, has been at the Adult Correctional Institutions since his arrest when investigators from the state police High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations executed a search warrant at his home at 33 Circle Drive, Coventry.

Prosecutors say Flamand was selling drugs from both the recruiting office and from his home. According to the online database for the Rhode Island Judiciary, no future court date has been set yet.

Health officials expect most Rhode Island beaches to be open for holiday swimming on Saturday, but conditions can change by the minute, said Ernest Julian at the R.I. Department of Health on Friday afternoon.

"Rainfall was extremely erratic" Julian said as he announced the reopening of Scarborough State Beach, both north and south, in Narragansett and the Camp Fuller YMCA Beach in South Kingstown.

Although some communities around Narragansett Bay measured 6 inches of rainfall in 36 hours, Scarborough got 2 inches on Wednesday, and from 0.04 to 0.4 on Thursday. By Friday at 1 p.m., it was fine.

At the same time, however, three other swimming areas were closed, and the closure of the private Misquamicut Club beach was extended through Friday. The newly closed beaches are Third Beach in Middletown, Gorton Pond in Warwick and the private Watch Hill Fire District beach in Westerly.

Julian said the situation can change any minute, so before planning an outing, call (401) 222-2751 or visit the beach closures page of the Health Department's Web site.
The information will be updated through the holiday weekend, Julian said.

The following beaches are closed:

Town beaches in Barrington, Bristol, Warren and North Kingstown; Warwick's City Park, Groton Pond, Oakland, Goddard Memorial State Park and Conimicut Point beaches, Peabody's and Third Beach in Middletown; Sandy Point Beach in Portsmouth; Camp Canonicus in Exeter; and the private Misquamicut Club and Watch Hill Fire District baches in Westerly.

Officials will continue to monitor the water quality and recommend reopening when the areas are safe for swimming, according to the Health Department.

For more information on area beaches, visit projo.com's interactive beach map.

(This entry was first posted at 8:45 a.m.)

The state Department of Environmental Management's Division of Agriculture Friday advised gardeners, farmers and commercial growers that an outbreak of Late Blight, scientific name Phytopthora infestans, should be countered with application of fungicides. All tomato and potato crops -- commercial and home grown -- should be viewed as potentially suspect for the disease and measures taken to monitor for and if necessary control the disease, the DEM said in a news release.

The DEM described the disease as "a serious threat to agriculture," and said it will determine whether additional regulations or quarantine are necessary.

William Fry, a Cornell University professor of plant pathology, has been quoted as saying that the new strain is causing "widespread crop devastation" throughout the United States and Canada. He said the fungus is doubly dangerous because it is aggressive and resistant to protective measures.

Fry, who published a paper on the subject with Stephen B. Goodwin, a U.S. Department of Agriculture researcher at Purdue University, in the journal Plant Disease, said the strain hit New York and Maine in 1992 and 1993 and is now found in Idaho, Texas, Colorado, Nebraska and South Dakota.

Accuweather.com said on its Web site that this outbreak is the "earliest and most widespread," and that it has prompted the removal of tomato plants from stores in New York and New England. Accuweather.com said this season's wet weather has helped spread the spores by which Late Blight reproduces.

The Web site said plants have been removed from sale at Home Depot, Wal-Mart and Kmart stores, and said the disease has been found in all Atlantic coastal states except for Georgia. The site predicted that the price of tomatoes and other vegetables will rise as growers seek to cover the cost of treating the disease.

Leaf lesions, the DEM said, begin as tiny, irregularly shaped brown spots. Brown to blackish lesions also develop on upper stems. Firm brown spots develop on tomato fruit. If the lesion has a yellow border and is occurring on the bottom of the plant, it is likely due to infection of either Early Blight or Septoria leaf spot, two common diseases found in home gardens.

The University of Rhode Island's Cooperative Extension advised commercial growers apply fungicides, because if left untreated Late Blight "would mean certain death of their crops."

The Cooperative Extension urged gardeners to act quickly so as to ensure that garden-grown tomato and potato plants don't become a source of spores that could infect commercial farms, as Late Blight spores are easily dispersed by wind.
According to the Cooperative Extension, here are the steps home gardeners should take:

* Inspect tomato plants daily.

* If symptoms are already appearing on plants, remove them. Place them in a plastic bag, secured and discarded in the trash or completely buried two feet underground so plants decompose and will not re-sprout. Do not compost plants, put them on a cull pile, or leave them outside.

* Begin spraying fungicide now -- even before symptoms appear -- and continue spraying regularly. Use a product that contains chlorothalonil. These products are only effective if used before the disease appears, and should be reapplied every five to seven days if wet weather persists. Chlorothalonil is a protectant fungicide, with no systemic movement in the plant, so thorough coverage is necessary.

* For organic farmers and gardeners, the options are very limited, since only copper fungicides can be used, and copper is not very effective on late blight. It is easily washed off by rainfall.

The Cooperative Extension said that most other vegetables, such as lettuce, eggplant, peppers, squash, carrots, green beans and broccoli, are not affected by the fungus.

The service suggested that further information for commercial growers is available from Heather Faubert at the URI Cooperative Extension at (401) 874-2967. Home gardeners may contact the URI Master Gardener Hotline at (800) 448-1011.

Were you there for the first festival, in 1959? How about when Dylan went electric? Were you there at the return of the festival in 1985? What was the worst weather you sat through? And just how many times have you seen The Indigo Girls?

Whatever your memories of the folk festivals, drop a line to Journal pop music writer Rick Massimo at rmassimo@projo.com.

From the National Weather Service:

Special Weather Statement Statement as of 1:32 PM EDT on July 3, 2009

At 131 PM EDT National Weather Service Doppler radar indicated a
thunderstorm with the potential to produce wind gusts to 40
mph and small hail over Warwick... moving northeast at 5 mph.

* Some locations affected include... East Providence and Barrington

For your safety... get inside when this storm approaches. Heavy rain
may cause minor street flooding as well as ponding of water in poor
drainage areas.

This storm is producing occasional cloud to ground lightning. If you
are caught outside... stay away from isolated tall objects such as
trees. Avoid open areas such as Golf courses or Ball fields.

Take a look at the local radar to see how the storms are popping up.

The flood of legislation never materialized from the State House this week, but the water did.

From the men's bathroom that is.

A broken flush feature on a urinal in a first-floor men's room led to a not-so-minor flood that swamped the marble rotunda with more than half an inch of water Friday morning, creating a soggy (and ridiculously slippery) situation in the landmark building.

We here at Political Scene are not normally in the habit of bathroom talk, but this one was hard to avoid.

Water poured down the stairs and through cracks in the ceiling, drenching the stairs and the basement below.

"Because of the force of the flow, it allowed it to really spread out," said State House Superintendent Ed Butler who was on the scene with a crew that worked quickly to mop up the mess. Butler reported that the building did not sustain any permanent damage.

More than a decade in the making, the aquarium and ocean science center overcame major financial hurdles and finally opened to the public last year -- but on Saturdays only. As of July 4, it will be open seven days a week.

The Explorium features a computerized image of Earth in 3-D and a living coral reef exhibit that highlights issues of coral bleaching and global warming.

It also includes an activity center for children.

New Bedford was once among the world's foremost whaling ports and remains a major fishing center.

This year, to date in Rhode Island, no mosquitoes have tested positive for West Nile Virus or Eastern Equine Encephalitis. Still, the DEM encouraged residents to protect themselves by eliminating mosquito-breeding grounds and avoiding mosquito bites. Personal protection is the first line of defense against mosquitoes that can carry diseases such as West Nile Virus and EEE and is by far the most effective way of avoiding infection, the department said.

Eliminate mosquito breeding grounds from yards by removing anything that holds standing water, such as old tires, buckets, junk and debris, the department recommended. Also, clean gutters so that they drain correctly, and maintain swimming pools properly. Mosquitoes breed in standing water. Just one cup of standing water can produce hundreds of mosquitoes.

Avoid mosquito bites by using screens on windows and doors, covering up at dawn and dusk, and putting mosquito netting over playpens and baby carriages when they are outside. Also, use mosquito repellent, but with no more than 30 percent DEET. Do not use repellent on infants.

Mosquitoes are trapped every week statewide by DEM staff and tested at the RI Department of Health laboratory. Test results from mosquitoes trapped this week will be included in next week's announcement. Positive mosquito test results will generally trigger additional trapping to assess risk.