Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Two political Web sites are reporting that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will be traveling to Iraq -- and taking Rhode Island's Jack Reed with him.

Citing an unidentified source familiar with details of the trip, thehill.com said Obama would also be bringing Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., and that the trip would include a stop in Afghanistan.

CNNpolitics.com has just reported that Obama will be heading to Iraq later this month with both senators, citing two sources familiar with Obama's plans.

Hagel serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, while fellow Democrat Reed, a West Point graduate, is on the Armed Services Committee and has made several trips to Iraq.

The reports also refer to speculation that both men may be on Obama's short list for a vice presidential candidate.

A spokesman for Obama would neither confirm nor deny to thehill.com that senator is traveling to the area. Aides to Hagel and Reed both refused to comment when asked by CNN about the upcoming trip.

Thehill.com is the Web site of The Hill newspaper, which covers the activities of the U.S. Congress.

EDGARTOWN, Mass. -- A 60-year-old man is facing a disorderly conduct charge after allegedly lying about seeing two great white sharks off a Martha Vineyard’s beach.

Edgartown Police Chief Paul Condlin said Michael Lopenzo warned people to get out of the water at the Joseph Silva State Beach on Thursday. Lopenzo claimed he had seen two sharks about 22 feet long and 3,000 pounds each while he was fishing.

Officials closed the beach, but Condlin said investigators later determined Lopenzo was lying.

Condlin say Lopenzo gave the name of a nonexistent boat and owner to detectives investigating the sighting.

Attempts to reach Lopenzo were not immediately successful.

A second beach was closed Thursday on the island -- where the classic horror movie “Jaws” was filmed -- after lifeguards at South Beach said they might have seen a great white shark.

In 1974, Steven Spielberg chose Martha’s Vineyard for “Jaws,” depicting a series of deadly great white attacks in the fictional community of Amity.

The beaches were reopened Friday.

-- The Associated Press

PROVIDENCE -- Multiple shots were fired from a car that drove by a Bergen Street residence twice early this morning, where a mother and her baby were among several people on the porch, according to a police report.

As a result of the incident, the 9-month-old boy suffered a minor injury to the right side of the back of his head, according to police, and was taken by rescue truck to Hasbro Children's Hospital.

The child had no visible external injury, Deputy Police Chief Paul Kennedy said this afternoon. A CT scan done as a cautionary measure found two metal objects, each about 2 millimeters in size, in the baby's skull, Kennedy said. The objects did not penetrate the skull or go into the brain, he said.

Kennedy said it's not known what the objects are or how they got there. He cited a number of possibilities, from something richocheting off the house during the shootings to a unrelated incident in the past.

The police said no other injuries were reported.

The police had responded to 65 Bergen St. at 12:55 a.m. for a report of shots fired.

Rashida Lovett, 27, told police she was holding her infant in her arms when, witnesses said, a dark, four-door older-model Oldsmobile or a 1994 Oldsmobile 88 with tinted windows drove onto Bergen from Regent Avenue.

As the car drove past, about four shots were fired in the direction of those on the porch, according to the police report. The car turned around at Andem Street "for a second pass and fired approximately 5 more shots." The car then left, going onto Regent Avenue.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

>> Continue reading: Update: Shots fired from car while mother, baby on porch

A body found near the Tiverton shore was identified today as the Connecticut man who fell off his sailboat Monday afternoon near the Sakonnet River's northern entrance.

The cause of death for Bernard Mochan, 65, of Clinton, Conn., is still pending, a state Health Department spokeswoman said today.

Mochan fell off his 32-foot sailboat after being struck in the head by the boat’s boom. He was not wearing a flotation device.

The Coast Guard called off its search for Mochan on Wednesday.

Yesterday, Tiverton Fire Chief Robert Lloyd said that his department received a 911 call at about 10:30 a.m. from the head chef of the Boathouse Restaurant, who said he saw a floating object in the river about 300 yards offshore. Firefighters retrieved the body on the shore just south of the restaurant, in the Riverside and Poplar drives area.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Chloe Thompson and Journal archives

Journal photo / Gretchen Ertl
A look at the location of an accident this afternoon in which an Iway construction worker was hurt.

PROVIDENCE -- A construction worker on the Iway project was apparently struck by a construction vehicle this afternoon.

The worker for Cardi Corp. was brought by rescue to the hospital, state Department of Transportation spokesman Charles St. Martin said.

St. Martin said the incident happened about 2 p.m. to the right of Route 95 north, in a protected area behind barriers near the Point Street overpass.

He said the location is on the western side of Route 95 near the old Exit 20, which has been closed for the Route 195 relocation project known as the Iway.

The work site is shortly before a sign advising motorists they have a quarter-mile until Exit 21.

After a rescue truck had left, some yellow construction trucks of different types could be seen at some distance from each other at the site. Among them was a large yellow Caterpillar vehicle with four massive wheels, its front-end shovel filled with dirt.

A few state troopers were on scene; at one point they stood on the northbound highway's right side, motioning with their hands for traffic to take it slow. Several construction workers in white hard hats were on site, too.

-- With reports from projo.com staff writer Michael McKinney

BOSTON -- The highest court in Massachusetts has upheld the state's decision to revoke the license of a dentist accused in Rhode Island of stealing thousands of dollars from patients.

Gary Anusavice was accused of billing patients for services they didn't receive at his Pawtucket business, Premier Dental.

In 2005, Rhode Island Health Department suspended his license and ordered him to close his office in Pawtucket.

The Massachusetts Board of Registration in Dentistry later revoked Anusavice's license to practice in its state.

Anusavice appealed that decision. But on Friday, the Supreme Judicial Court in Massachusetts said dental regulators can discipline a dentist in Massachusetts based on discipline imposed on him in Rhode Island.

Read the 2005 Rhode Island consent order in the matter.

-- The Associated Press

Today is the deadline for prospective political candidates to submit enough Rhode Island voters' signatures in order to get on this year's ballot.

The signatures, however, must be validated, or certified, in order to count. The thresholds range from 50 signatures for the state House of Representatives and many town/city offices to 1,000 signatures for the U.S. Senate.

You can chart candidates' progress in gathering valid signatures at the Secretary of State's Web site, by using its searchable database.

The number of signatures that have been certified for every candidate will be updated each morning, according to the Secretary of State Ralph Mollis's office.

The office has until July 18 to finish certifying the names for candidates to make the ballot for the Sept. 9 primary or Nov. 4 election.

At 5 p.m. on July 18, Mollis will hold a public lottery at the State House to determine the order in which unendorsed candidates for Congress and the General Assembly will appear on primary ballots. The lottery will also set the order in which recognized political parties and independent candidates will appear on the November ballot.

The 2,800 Rhode Islanders who filed candidacy declarations last month have had since July 1 to collect voters' signatures.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

What male and female Rhode Island high school scholar-athletes will receive this year's Providence Journal High School Honor Roll awards?

Who will be named the 2008 Dick Reynolds Correspondent award winner?

The three scholarship recipients will be revealed Sunday in ProJo Sports and online at hsgametime.com/rhodeisland.

The Providence Journal Honor Roll Girl and Boy will each receive a $5,000 Wendy's/Peter Bennett Scholarship. The Dick Reynolds Correspondent award winner will receive a $5,000 scholarship

EDGARTOWN, Mass. -- The island where “Jaws” was filmed got a real-life shark scare when two beaches were closed due to an unconfirmed sighting of a great white shark off Martha's Vineyard.

A spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation said state-run South Beach was closed for a time Thursday after the Coast Guard received reports of the shark sighting. Swimmers were also kept out of the water at State Beach in Edgartown.

A plane was sent up to try to confirm the sighting.

In 1974, Steven Spielberg chose Martha’s Vineyard for the movie version of “Jaws,” depicting a series of deadly great white attacks in the fictional community of Amity.

Shark attacks are extremely rare in waters off New England, but great whites have been known to occasionally prowl in the region.

-- The Associated Press

Journal photo/ John Freidah
Customers line up outside the AT&T store on Reservoir Avenue in Cranston today for the release of the new iPhone. Gadi Shemtov, left, who hopes to upgrade to the new iPhone before leaving for Israel later today, shows Rick Wilson his old phone while the two wait in line. The new model updates the popular device launched a year ago by speeding up Internet access and adding a navigation chip. The new phone went on sale today in 22 countries. In most of them it was the first time any iPhone was officially sold there, though several countries have seen a brisk grey-market trade in phones imported from the U.S.

HOPKINTON -- The Garrity Industries flashlight plant in Ashaway will close in April, putting more than 50 people out of work.

A spokesman for Duracell, Garrity's corporate owner, says operations in Ashaway and Madison, Conn., will be consolidated at the company's Bethel, Conn., facility.

The spokesman says more than 50 employees at the Ashaway facility and 28 in Madison will be laid off over the next six to nine months.

Garrity Industries was founded in 1967, and in 2006 was bought by battery maker Duracell, a division of Procter & Gamble Co.

Spokesman Kurt Iverson says some employees will be offered jobs at other Duracell locations and some will get severance packages.

Westerly resident Carol Young, a Garrity employee since June 2000, says workers were ``upset and angry.''

The Associated Press with information from The Westerly Sun.

Look for a mostly sunny day today with a high near 80 degrees in the Providence area, according to the National Weather Service.

But there is a risk -- although it's low -- of thunderstorms this afternoon, mainly north of the Massachusetts Turnpike, the weather service warns.

The weekend looks great, too, with a sunny day tomorrow and a mostly sunny day forecast for Sunday. The temperature should reach the low 80s on both days.

On this day in 1914, Baseball Hall of Famer Babe Ruth made his major league debut as a pitcher for the Red Sox at Fenway Park in Boston.

Read more about today in history.

Watch a video about today in history.

Today's front story reports that the Public Utilities Commission has approved dramatic increases in electricity and gas rates charged to customers.

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