Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

A former Jamestown town council member is scheduled for arraignment in the British Virgin Islands today on a charge that he murdered his wife during a 1999 vacation.

Shelley Tyre, 46, died on the last day of the couple's vacation to the British Virgin Island of Tortola. David Swain and his wife were scuba diving when, Swain said, the couple separated. She drowned.

Officials in the British Virgin Islands originally ruled Tyre's death an accident.

But in 2006, Swain, now 52, was found responsible for the death of his wife in a civil trial in Rhode Island.

An extradition request was filed in May 2007, and after a hearing, officials in Tortola decided to charge Swain with murder earlier this year. He is now being held in prison on the island, awaiting his trial.

TRIP, a highway-industry affiliated group, will issue a report today saying that Rhode Island needs to spend $1.3 billion more than it now plans to spend during the next six years to repair its roads and bridges. The group says that more highway spending is essential to maintain the state's economy and its quality of life.

Through a Blue Ribbon Panel appointed by Governor Carcieri, the state Department of Transportation is already seeking an extra $300 million per year, which would nearly double its present budget, for the each of the next 10 years.

TRIP says it is affiliated with the construction industries of Rhode Island, a trade group representing the contractors who compete for DOT construction jobs worth millions of dollars each year.

Read a copy of the report in .pdf format.

-- Journal staff writer Bruce Landis

Best known, probably, for his tune "Duke of Earl," Gene Chandler here sings a pretty uplifting song.

Gene Chandler sings "Nothing Can Stop Me:"

Also, here's some more great footage of an another young Jamaican group. Toots and the Maytals. Toots still tours, but nothing beats this footage. Click "continue reading" below to pick up some new (old) dance moves.

Toots and the Maytals sing "Treat Me Bad" and "Never Let Me Down:"

>> Continue reading: Brandie's wake-up call: Nothing can stop me

A disabled vehicle has a shoulder closed at Routes 95 and 195 this morning.

The vehicle has the right shoulder closed on Route 195 westbound at the Route 95 junction.

To see how traffic is affected, see the Transportation Management Center's Web cameras.

On this day in 1985, Palestinian gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean with more than 400 people aboard.

Read more about today in history.

Not much to say today, and that's OK. We'll have clear, sunny skies through the day with wind from the north between 7 and 13 mph. Temperatures should reach about 65 degrees.

Tonight the skies should remain clear as temperatures drop to a chilly 39 degrees.

We'll begin a modest warm-up tomorrow, as temperatures hit about 68 degrees with clear, sunny skies.

See how much warmer it will get in the next few days on projo.com's weather page.

Today's front page reports on the bad news from Wall Street, the verdict in the trial of two former executives for Roger Williams Medical Center and the sentencing of a woman convicted of killing her 3-year-old nephew.

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

At the urging of low-income advocates and a powerful state legislator, the Public Utilities Commission today agreed to lower the down payment needed to restore utility service for customers who lost gas or electricity service because of non-payment.

The two commissioners at the open meeting this morning, Elia Germani and Mary Bray, voted to temporarily amend the rules so that those without service could have it restored by paying as little as 10 percent of an overdue balance. The rules normally require a down payment of at least 25 percent. The third commissioner, Robert Holbrook, was not present.

The ruling is a victory for the George Wiley Center of Pawtucket, an agency that lobbies on behalf of low-income families. The center had initiated the petition, which sought to relax the rules, in July.

The decision comes at a time of unusually high energy bills and predictions that this winter will be even more expensive than last year's record-breaker.

Yesterday's decision did not grant a flat 10 percent for everyone, as the George Wiley center had sought. Instead, the PUC established three down payment percentages, depending on a customer's back bill.

Those who owe under $1,000 will have to pay 20 percent and agree to pay off the rest over a 12-month period; those who owe $1,000 to $2,499 will have to pay 15 percent down, and pay of the rest over a 24-month period. Those who owe $2,500 or more can have service restored with a 10 percent down-payment. The remaining balance would have to be paid over 36 months.

The new payment terms apply to all customers, not just those who are considered "low income."

Normally, a customer would have to pay between 25 percent and 50 percent of the back balance to have service restored. The level of down payment is dependent upon the customer's past payment history, rather than the amount due. A customer who has never broken a payment agreement would be required to pay 25 percent. Those who have broken several agreements would have to pay 50 percent.

The changes are temporary -- they are in effect only until Dec. 1.

Last week, Senate President Joseph A. Montalbano, wrote to the PUC and suggested a three-tier down payment schedule similar to the one enacted yesterday.

"Today's ruling ensures Rhode Islanders have the utilities they need to survive the winter months while affording them some additional flexibility in getting their accounts in order," Montalbano said in a statement yesterday.

The decision will have several impacts. First, it should make it easier for those currently without utility service to have it restored. As of Aug. 31, there were 3,768 electric customers and 3,972 gas customers who remained without service.

Secondly, it will allow the monies the state receives through the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, to stretch further. Part of the LIHEAP money is used for "crisis grants" which go toward paying the back bill of a customer in order to get service restored. Now, more money can be directed to other types of heating assistance.

And lastly, the decision will likely mean that National Grid will have to write off more "bad debt." National Grid said that would be the result of a less flexible plan that the company had recommended. Bad debt is money that the utility company cannot collect from customers. Those debts are then passed along to all customers in the form of slightly higher utility rates.

-- Journal staff writer Timothy C. Barmann

PROVIDENCE -- Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, one of Congress's main designers of the $700-billion bailout package for the nation's financial system, defended his position during a visit in Providence this afternoon.

Frank, the Democrat and House Financial Services Committee chairman, said at the pre-scheduled lecture "An Afternoon with Barney Frank" that the root cause of the financial problems has been lack of regulation in the lending market in years leading up to now. Going forward, he said regulation will be the key to getting American lending and financial markets on track, but did not offer a lot of specifics.

Frank blamed today's losses in world financial markets not on the bailout but on a combination of job-loss numbers Friday and short-term panic by investors.

Before the 4 p.m. lecture to university students, Frank and Rhode Island Reps. James R. Langevin and Patrick J. Kennedy spoke to reporters. Langevin described Frank as "the quarterback or the general" who helped to put together a rescue package for Main Street America.

Frank's comments to the media drew heavily from what he later said in the university lecture.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with reports from Cynthia Needham of the Journal State House Bureau

The Ghost Tour is on tonight.

It's on Providence's East Side, from 7 to 8:30.

Tickets are $15 each in person. Bought online in advance, they are $12.

Tours leave from Prospect Terrace (the Roger Williams statue, at about 60 Congdon St).

Group and children's rates are available.

For details, go to www.providenceghosttour.com.

Go to projothebeat.com to plan ahead things to do tonight, tomorrow and into the weekend.

LINCOLN -- Classes at Lincoln High School, where a teacher's aide was killed Friday, were held at regular times today.

Schools Supt. Georgia Fortunato said a crisis intervention team, made up of school district psychologists, social workers, counselors, and others, were on hand to help students and staff. The school's news release said several student and staff spoke with the team.

Students say Jay D. Paul, 34, of Cumberland, was called to the school's office Friday afternoon. Minutes after he went to the office, students and parents outside saw a blue station wagon, registered to Paul, drive into the front of the building. It burst into flames and the driver was killed.

A friend described Paul as an intellectual, with interests from politics to the study of cell and tissue development.

Teachers were told to monitor students in classes for any indications that would suggest need for counseling and to direct those students to counselors.

Yesterday afternoon, an testing service deemed the air quality in the building to be "excellent," the news release said.

BOSTON -- Rep. Barney Frank said today that Republican criticism of Democrats over the nation's housing crisis is a veiled attack on the poor that's racially motivated.

The Massachusetts Democrat, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said the GOP is appealing to its base by blaming the country's mortgage foreclosure problem on efforts to expand affordable housing through the Community Reinvestment Act.

He said that blame is misplaced, because loans under the act are issued by regulated institutions, while far more foreclosures were triggered by high-cost loans made by unregulated entities.

"They get to take things out on poor people," Frank said at a mortgage foreclosure symposium in Boston. "Let's be honest: The fact that some of the poor people are black doesn't hurt them either, from their standpoint. This is an effort, I believe, to appeal to a kind of anger in people."

Frank also dismissed charges the Democrats failed on their own or blocked Republican efforts to rein in the mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The federal government recently took control of both entities.

House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio called Frank's remarks "a lame, desperate attempt to divert Americans' attention away from the Democratic party's obstruction of reforms that would have reined in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and helped our nation avoid this economic crisis."

"Congressman Frank should retract his ridiculous statements and start taking responsibility for the role he and other top Democrats played in putting Main Street Americans in this mess," Boehner said.

Frank said Republicans controlled Congress for 12 years and passed no regulation, while Democrats passed a Bush administration Fannie and Freddie regulation package since gaining control of the House and Senate in January 1997.

"If I could have stopped a Republican bill during the Bush years, I would have started with the war in Iraq. Then I would have gone to the Patriot Act. Then I would have gone on to the hundreds of millions in tax cuts," said Frank, to applause from the audience.

The longtime congressman is being challenged this fall by both Republican and independent candidates. He has been criticized in his liberal district, which wends its way from Newton to New Bedford, for being one of the leaders of congressional efforts last week to win approval of a $700 billion Wall Street bailout plan.

He was greeted at the Colonnade Hotel by a group of protesters who argued the money would be better spent on community problems. They chanted, "Money for the people, not for the banks."

One of the protestors, Nan Genger, said, "You keep the money in our schools and communities; that's how you stimulate the economy."

Frank dismissed the criticism, saying the bailout package was aimed at restoring the country's credit markets, which affect everything from home and auto loans to the state's ability to issue bonds for cash to pay its bills.

"As far as Wall Street is concerned, here's the deal: Some of them behaved badly. You know what? They have so much money that they're going to live well no matter what we do," Frank said. "This is to help people from being laid off in automobile sales room because you don't get the credit to buy cars on cash, to help small businesses to get their inventory. When credit gets choked off, it's the middle-income people who get hurt. The guys on Wall Street, if they never earned another nickel, would live better than they have any right to live."

-- The Associated Press

A demolition company in Johnston is accused of violating clean-air and asbestos-emissions regulations and faces a $256,320 penalty from the Environmental Protection Agency.

The federal agency said in a news release today that, in 2004-2005, the Bilray Demolition Company demolished the former Seaboard Foundry in Johnston after a fire there.

When the state Department of Health inspected during the demolition, it found asbestos-containing materials in the facility, the EPA said.

The EPA alleges Bilray failed to:

* Thoroughly inspect for asbestos before demolition.

* Provide the EPA with prior written notification of its intent to demolish.

* Adequately wet asbestos during the certain operations.

* Keep asbestos adequately wet until it was collected and contained for disposal.

* Properly dispose of asbestos waste.

A North Kingstown shipbuilding company is accused in an Environmental Protection Agency complaint of violating federal and state clean-air regulations.

The Southeastern New England Shipbuilding Corp. (SENESCO) faces a proposed $378,700 fine for violations, a news release today from the EPA says.

The company is accused of violating air quality requirements, which are specifically for ship building and repair facilities, by failing to submit notifications and reports, failing to keep records, and by using paints containing hazardous air pollutants greater than allowable limits.

EPA also alleges the company violated requirements under the federal Clean Air Act by failing to apply for a Title V permit despite having potential xylene emissions greater than 10 tons per year. And the EPA alleges the company failed to meet a "State Implementation Plan" for air quality by failing to apply for a different permit before beggining construction on a facility.

The company has since gotten the latter permit from the Department of Environmental Management and has submitted a Title V application, the EPA said.

It may come down to the drawing of straws after all, at least according to one of the lawyers challenging the federal government's right to take 31 acres into trust for the Narragansett Indian Tribe.

The U.S. Supreme Court today denied requests that more than one lawyer be allowed to represent the state's interests before the nation's highest court during arguments Nov. 3.

That decision leaves it to lawyers for the Town of Charlestown, the attorney general's office and Governor Carcieri to sort out who will get the half-hour of arguing time before the court.

"On our side, one person will have to be chosen," said Joseph S. Larisa Jr., Charlestown's assistant solicitor on Indian affairs, adding "The time to name that person is now. We have twenty-five days left."

For the past decade, the state and the Town of Charlestown have jointly opposed the U.S. Department of Interior's decision to take the 31 acres into trust for the tribe.

Trust status frees the property from most state and local laws, placing it under tribal and federal control. State and local officials fear it would open the site up to a casino or some other venture outside of state oversight.

The tribe bought the land, just north of Route 1, in 1991 to build housing for its elderly. The tribe successfully petitioned the federal Interior Department to take the land into trust. The state filed suit after the federal agency agreed to do so in 1998.

The state and Charlestown lost their challenge in U.S. District Court, before a federal appeals panel and again before the full Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston.

Larisa had been seeking 15 minutes of the time, but following the court's ruling today said he alone should argue the state's case based on his "experience and knowledge of the case."

Governor Carcieri's office, represented by former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson, and Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch had asked that the state's arguments be split between Olson and an unnamed lawyer from the attorney general's office.

Governor Carcieri hired Olson not long after the Supreme Court agreed to hear the state's appeal in February. Olson, who has appeared before the Supreme Court many times, won the case that settled the 2000 election in George W. Bush's favor.

Larisa said he contacted Carcieri's office and they indicated that they wanted Olson to argue the case. He said Lynch's office had not returned a phone call.

Spokespeople for Lynch and Carcieri did not return phone calls immediately.

Supreme Court rules allot each side a half-hour for oral argument and specify that only one lawyer on each side will be heard, unless the court rules otherwise.

According to a guide on practicing before the Supreme Court, the court normally will not designate who should argue when parties can't agree. The clerk's office advises counsel that if they cannot agree, the matter should be resolved by drawing lots -- a suggestion that generally seems to produce agreement.

A car fire has closed the right shoulder in the exit 4 area of Route 195 east, the state Transportation Management Center reported at 2:40 p.m.

That is the exit for Route 44 east.

Cameras on the management center's Web site appeared to show traffic moving steadily without any major hitch.

PROVIDENCE -- Rhode Island Reps. James R. Langevin and Patrick J. Kennedy and Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank are scheduled to talk to members of the media at Brown University this afternoon about the approved $700-billion bailout of the nation's financial system.

The bailout, known as the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, was signed into law Friday.

The three Democratic lawmakers are scheduled to appear at 3 p.m. at the university's Horace Mann House, 47 George St.

Frank is scheduled at 4 p.m. to be at the university for "An Afternoon with Barney Frank." Check out projothebeat.com for information.

A news release announcing their visit described Frank as a lead negotiator for the plan in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Langevin said in the statement: "I am pleased this Congress came together at a crucial moment to reach a bipartisan compromise to rescue not only our financial markets but our entire economy. However no one is celebrating the tough decisions that were made.

But he added that "our economy is in dire shape and drastic action was needed."

The news release touted the bailout as something that will:

* Reinvest in the troubled financial markets

* Reimburse taxpayers and make sure they share in any profits resulting from the government's help

* Reform how business is done on Wall Street with strong independent oversight and transparency

* Limit excessive executive compensation

* Take action to prevent the foreclosures that are continuing to drive down home values.

PROVIDENCE -- Katherine Bunnell, who was convicted for her part in the 2004 beating death of her 3-year-old nephew, Thomas "T.J." Wright, was sentenced today to life imprisonment, with the possibility of parole.

Bunnell, 24, was convicted in May of second-degree murder in Providence County Superior Court.

Bunnell will be eligible for parole.

Bunnell today was also sentenced to 10 years to serve consecutively for conspiracy.

Her boyfriend, Gilbert Delestre, is also facing murder charges in the death of Thomas "T.J." Wright. His trial is set to begin next month.

Prosecutors said the two beat T.J. to death in October 2004 after they returned to their Woonsocket apartment to find the child had made a mess on the living room floor.

Wright was the son of Bunnell's sister, Karen Wright. He had been placed in Bunnell's care after Wright was sent to jail in Illinois on drug charges. Bunnell, a Woonsocket High School dropout who had two children of her own, became the foster parent of three of her sister's children by the time she was 20.

Karen Wright told the judge at the sentencing today: "The only thing that doesn't make me hate my sister is that [T.J.] was alive when she left."

Bunnell wore handcuffs as she addressed the court today, reading from a handwritten statement to Judge Gilbert V. Indeglia: "I'm here to take responsibility."

Attorney General Patrick Lynch sent out a statement this afternoon expressing his gratitude to Indeglia's sentence.

But, Lynch said, "today's sentencing merely brings the legal case to a close; it can't bring T.J. Wright back, and he will be mourned forever."

-- With reports from projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson

Robert A. Urciuoli holds his wife's hand as he leaves court this morning after a jury convicted the former Roger Williams Medical Cente president and CEO of all 36 counts against him.
Video: Watch a video of responses from Urciuoli's lawyer and Frances Driscoll's daughter after the verdict Providence Journal photo by Steve Szydlowski

PROVIDENCE -- A jury this morning convicted former Roger Williams Medical Center president and CEO Robert A. Urciuoli of all 36 counts against him, but acquitted former vice president Frances P. Driscoll of the one count against her.

The pair were accused of stealing the honest services of former state Sen. John A. Celona of North Providence, hiring Celona to do political favors for the medical center.

Urciuoli was convicted of one count of conspiracy and 35 counts of honest-services mail fraud. Urciuoli remained stoic as the jury announced its verdict. One of his lawyers held his hand against Urciuoli's back.

Driscoll was acquitted of the only charge against her -- one count of aiding and abetting the alleged conspiracy. Family members gasped when the jury cleared the 69-year-old grandmother who shattered her arm when she fell on the courthouse steps Sept 22, delaying the trial for almost a week.

The jury had started its fifth day of deliberations when it reached its verdict.

Outside the courthouse this morning, an attorney for Urciuoli said he was disappointed with the verdict but confident it would be overturned on appeal.

The jury's verdict "is completely against the evidence that was presented in this case," said attorney Howard Cooper of Boston.

Urciuoli stood near Cooper. He was hugging his wife, the former Donna Paolino. The Urciuolis declined comment.

Cooper emphasized trial testimony that James McGuirk, an attorney for the Roger Williams Medical Center, had said that it was OK for Urciuoli to hire Celona. He noted there was also a state Ethics Commission opinion supporting his legal advice.

Cooper said he's confident the verdict will be overturned, as it was the first time.

This was a retrial for both Urciuoli and Driscoll. They were convicted in their original trials in October 2006, but the convictions were overturned on appeal. Celona testified at that trial, but did not testify at the retrial, which started with opening statements on Sept. 9.

U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente, also speaking in front of the federal courthouse, said the jury made the right decision regarding Urciuoli.

In regards to Driscoll, he said, "I'm not disappointed. We respect what the jury comes up with."

He commended the two prosecutors: Luis A. Matos and Dulce Donovan, both assistant U.S. attorneys.

Corrente was asked whether not having Celona testify made a difference. "I don't think it played an awfully big role," he said.

Evidence presented in the trial showed that Urciuoli hired Celona despite the concerns of Driscoll and others at the hospital. The prosecution introduced faxes and e-mails from Celona to Driscoll in which the senator said he had worked to kill or promote certain legislation.

Celona was hired by an assisted living center affliated with the hospital, The Village at Elmhurst, and was paid $260,000 from 1998 through early 2004.

Prosecutors say that Celona took steps to kill bills deemed harmful to Roger Williams and to advance legislation that Urciuoli considered favorable.

Celona worked to kill legislation that would have prohibited hospital officials from serving on the board of a for-profit hospital in the event of a merger, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Prosecutors said Celona also helped Urciuoli pressure medical insurance companies to increase their reimbursements to Roger Williams for health care services.

But the defense countered that there was nothing illegal in the relationship and that Celona, who was paid between $700 and $1,000 a week, exaggerated his claims. Celona is in prison, serving a 30-month sentence after pleading guilty to federal fraud charges.

Urciuoli remains free on bond pending sentencing, which is scheduled for March 6, 2009.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, conspiracy and 17 of the mail fraud counts carry maximum penalties of five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. Eighteen of the mail fraud counts have maximum penalties of 20 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

In the original trial, Urciuoli was convicted of all the counts against him, while Driscoll was convicted of one count.

The two appealed the convictions, their lawyers arguing that Senior U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres gave the jury instructions that allowed them to convict Celona for work he did that was legal.

The First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston overturned the convictions in January 2007.

Both were free on bail pending the retrial.

-- Journal staff writer W. Zachary Malinowski

Gasoline prices have dropped another 14 cents in Rhode Island, leaving them at their lowest average price in almost six months, according to AAA Southern New England.

The average price for a gallon of regular, unleaded gasoline is $3.329 as the self-service pump, according to AAA's weekly survey.

The price hasn't been this low since the middle of April, AAA says.

AAA attributes the drop to falling oil prices.

BOSTON (AP) -- Even though thousands more Massachusetts residents now have health insurance under the state's health care mandate, they are still seeking care at hospital emergency rooms.

The 2006 law was supposed to ease pressure on emergency rooms and save money by encouraging people to go to their to primary care doctors for non-urgent health needs.

But according to The Boston Globe, patients with state-subsidized insurance have continued to use the ER at a rate 14 percent higher than Massachusetts residents overall.

Those with the lowest incomes, who formerly received free care in emergency rooms and now pay a nominal fee, are using ERs at a rate 27 percent higher than the state average.

Health care leaders says one reason is that there are too few primary care physicians in the state.