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May 4, 2006

Rep. Kennedy in car crash in D.C.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Rep. Patrick Kennedy was involved in a single-car crash early this morning in downtown Washington, his office said late this afternoon.

Kennedy's press secretary, Robin Costello, confirmed that the accident took place near the Capitol building, at the intersection of 1st and C Streets, SE. She said the Rhode Island Democrat and member of the famous Kennedy clan was not hurt.

Reacting to some media reports, Kennedy said he was not under the influence of alcohol when he crashed the green Mustang.

"I consumed no alcohol prior to the incident. I will fully cooperate with the Capitol police in whatever investigation they choose to undertake," Kennedy said through Costello.

More to come on projo.com and in tomorrow's Journal ...

Posted by Steve Peoples at 5:55 PM | Comment

2 women seriously hurt in crash on Tiverton line

FALL RIVER, Mass. – Two women with serious injuries were transported by helicopter to Rhode Island Hospital today after their car veered off Route 177 and hit a tree.

A Westport resident reported the accident at 8:33 a.m., said Deputy Police Chief Nicholas Maltais with the Tiverton Police.

Maltais said a gray 2005 Nissan Sentra with Massachusetts registration heading west on Route 177 traveled out of the left lane and crossed the center line before crashing into a tree in Fall River on the Tiverton, R.I., line. Authorities temporarily shut down the road while responding to the accident.

Maltais would not release the victims' identity or their ages, but said both are “adults.”

Route 177 reopened around noon. Reconstruction experts from Tiverton and Fall River are still investigating the cause of the accident.

Posted by Steve Peoples at 5:14 PM | Comment

Judge blocks Carcieri's Beacon board firings

PROVIDENCE -- Superior Court Judge Stephen J. Fortunato Jr. has temporarily blocked Governor Carcieri from firing two members of the Beacon Mutual Insurance Co. board of directors.

Fortunato issued his ruling this afternoon after listening to arguments from attorneys for the governor and the board members, George H. Nee and Henry R. Boeniger.

Fortunato granted Nee and Boeniger's request for a temporary restraining order blocking the termination, ruling that Carcieri was not an impartial hearing officer, as required by law.

The judge scheduled a full hearing for May 12 to decide whether to extend the temporary restraining order.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Lynn Arditi

Carcieri is seeking to purge the leadership of Beacon Mutual, which has come under fire since the scathing report issued last month by outside consultants revealed that Beacon gave preferential rates to some companies and maintained "inappropriate relationships" with certain insurance agents.

Carcieri threatened to forcibly remove Nee and Boeniger, both Democrats who work for labor unions, if they did not resign voluntarily by April 25. http://www.projo.com/digitalbulletin/content/projo-20060425-beaconfolo.6ef72a14.html

Nee and Boeniger filed suit to stop Carcieri. Nee and Boeniger’s lawyer, Marc B. Gursky called the governor’s actions “illegal” and “discriminatory treatment” based on their labor union ties.

Beacon, a nonprofit mutual, was created by the General Assembly to provide coverage to Rhode Island employers at the ``lowest-possible cost.'' It has become the state's dominant workers' compensation carrier, insuring about 90 percent of all Rhode Is land employers.

Beacon is now under investigation by the state attorney general and a statewide grand jury. State investigators will be assisted in their probe by the FBI.

When Fortunato asked Gursky in court today if Carcieri has the power to remove Beacon board members, the labor lawyer replied, “Not at all.”
Gursky went on to say that even if the governor were to have the authority to do so, he would have to follow the Constitution.

“Because he has prejudged these two … [the governor] is not in a position to make a fair decision,” Gursky argued.

In the half-hour hearing before Fortunato this morning, discussion centered on what laws regulate Beacon, the state’s dominant workers’ compensation insurer, and whether the governor has the authority to remove members of the Beacon board.

-- With reports from projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

Posted by Steve Peoples at 3:54 PM | Comment

Biechele seeks community service in Station fire case

PROVIDENCE -- Community service, instead of prison time, is being sought by the man who ignited The Station nightclub, according to a motion in Superior Court today.

The motion was submitted by the lawyer for former Great White band tour manager Daniel M. Biechele, who has pleaded guilty to 100 counts of manslaughter in connection with the 2003 nightclub blaze in West Warwick, which killed 100 people. He ignited the pyrotechnics that caused the tragedy.

Biechele is facing up to 10 years in prison at a sentencing hearing next week.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Paul Edward Parker

In a court filing today, Biechele's attorney says that community service is an appropriate punishment.

"Daniel Biechele is already serving a life sentence and there will be no parole," writes his lawyer, Thomas G. Briody. "But he will better serve the memory of these victims by performing community service and working as a productive citizen than by sitting in a prison cell.”

Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch has already filed a motion asking Superior Court Judge Francis J. Darigan to impose the maximum sentence.

In the motion filed today, Briody writes that the court should show mercy.

"Many months ago, during pretrial hearings, this court stated that no one would be happy at the end of this case. The end is almost upon us, and the court's observation is truer now than ever before," according to the motion.

"If there is one lesson to be taken from this proceeding, it is that grief and retribution should not determine the sentence of Mr. Biechele. Instead, in this unusual case, where the loss is so extreme but the criminal conduct was no more than a misdemeanor, the court should show mercy."

Biechele's sentencing will span three days beginning this Monday, with statements from relatives of fire victims.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Paul Edward Parker

Posted by Steve Peoples at 3:48 PM | Comment

Holmes says he was forced off Beacon board

John A. Holmes Jr., the Beacon Mutual Insurance Co. board member who resigned yesterday, said in an interview this afternoon that he was forced to go.

Holmes told a Journal reporter that Governor Carcieri’s chief of staff, Kenneth K. McKay IV, told him a week ago that he must resign or expect a sheriff to deliver a letter to him, just like those delivered to the two board members who are today fighting in Superior Court to keep their posts.

George H. Nee and Henry R. Boeniger, both Democrats who work for labor unions, are requesting a temporary restraining order against the Republican governor, who moved to fire them on April 20.

A call to the governor's office for comment was not immediately returned.

-- With reports from Journal Staff Writer Lynn Arditi

Posted by Kate Bramson at 2:33 PM | Comment

Photo: Gardeners sprout after days of rain

Journal photo / Andrew Dickerman
Alice Miranda and Cathy Cambio prepare a vegetable garden off Oakland Avenue in Providence, after sun follows days of rain. Gardeners can get the latest forecast here and more gardening advice here.

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 2:29 PM | Comment

Brady wants Flutie to stay with Pats

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Tom Brady wants Doug Flutie to return as one of his backup quarterbacks with the New England Patriots.

Brady said today he'd love Flutie, who is considering retirement, to stay with the team for a second season.

"I don't know how that's going to work out," Brady said at his first news conference since the Patriots were eliminated in Denver in their second playoff game.

Flutie, 43, said he'd announce as early as this week if he will retire. He has said he does not want to play outside New England.

Read the full story.

Posted by Jack Perry at 2:13 PM | Comment

Judge: Mall eatery must stop selling white rice

PROVIDENCE -- A Superior Court judge this afternoon sided with a Chinese restaurant at the Providence Place food court and ordered a competitor to stop selling white rice.

In a courtroom battle dubbed the "Rice Wars," Judge Stephen J. Fortunato Jr. ruled that Cathay Cathay's lease gives it exclusive rights to sell white rice, and so he ordered Japan Cafe to remove several dishes from its menu.

Fortunato gave Japan Cafe until May 18 to comply.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Tom Mooney

During 10 days of earlier testimony, expert witnesses talked, among other culinary topics, about the difference between boiled rice and parboiled rice.

Japan Cafe argued that it parboiling its rice, not steaming or boiling it, so it wasn't infringing on Cathay Cathay's rights under the lease.

But Fortunato, in a decision from the bench early this afternoon, rejected that argument, essentially ruling that white rice is white rice.

Last fall, Cathay Cathay filed a lawsuit against Japan Cafe, Gourmet India and the mall itself, arguing its lease entitled it to the exclusive sale of "white rice (boiled and steamed)" and about a dozen other specific menu items.

Gourmet India was later dropped from the suit.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Tom Mooney.

Posted by Jack Perry at 12:43 PM | Comment

Photo: Waiting for hearing on casino vote bill

Journal photo / Andrew Dickerman
Harrah's chief financial officer Charles Atwood, left, and Narragansett Indian Tribe Chief Matthew Thomas wait for this morning's House Finance Committee hearing to begin. The panel was considering a bill, introduced by Rep. Timothy A. Williamson, who represents Coventry and West Warwick, that would place a question on the November ballot asking voters if they support amending the state's Constitution to allow a casino in West Warwick. The facility would be privately owned and operated in association with the Narragansetts.

Posted by Steve Peoples at 12:31 PM | Comment

6 arrested in fraud tied to Boston's Big Dig

BOSTON -- Six men who worked for the Big Dig's largest concrete supplier were arrested today on federal charges alleging they falsified records to hide the poor quality of concrete delivered to the massive highway project.

The six, all current or former employees of Aggregate Industries, face a variety of charges including making false statements, mail fraud and conspiracy to commit highway fraud, said FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz.

"My understanding is what they did was mix, commingled leftover concrete with new concrete," she said. The actions allegedly took place from 1999 to 2003.

In an August 2005 raid of company offices, state police said they found evidence the company had falsified paperwork to make it appear that old or rejected concrete was freshly poured.

Authorities have said there's no reason to believe the substandard concrete has affected the project's structural integrity because it was delivered six years ago and problems would have surfaced by now.

Lawyers for Aggregate Industries have defended the quality of its concrete and said it never delivered any that did not meet strength specifications called for in its state contract.

-- The Associated Press

The Big Dig, formally called the Central Artery and Third Harbor Tunnel project, buried Interstate 93 in tunnels beneath downtown and connected the Massachusetts Turnpike to Logan Airport with a third tunnel beneath Boston Harbor.

The project was plagued by long delays and soaring costs that ballooned from $2.6 billion to $14.6 billion. Earlier this year, after more than a decade of traffic detours, the last major section of the project opened. The heavy construction had started in 1991.

The allegations about concrete strength stemmed from a whistleblower suit filed in May 2005 in Suffolk Superior Court. Aggregate provided 60 percent of the concrete used to build the Big Dig.

According to Marcinkiewicz, arrested were: Robert Propseri, 63, general manager; Mark Blaise, 36, a dispatch manager; John Fahar, 42, a dispatch manager; Jerard McNally, 53, quality control manager; Gregory Stevenson, 53, district operations manager; and Keith Thomas, 50, a dispatch manager.

Fahar was arrested early today in Connecticut and Stevenson was arrested in Pennsylvania, Marcinkiewicz said. She did not know which of the men were current employees, and did not give their hometowns.

-- The Associated Press

Posted by Steve Peoples at 12:22 PM | Comment

Beacon board members ask judge to stop Carcieri

PROVIDENCE – Superior Court Judge Stephen J. Fortunato Jr. announced in court this morning that he will reconvene a hearing at 2 p.m. today for further arguments on whether Governor Carcieri can remove Beacon Mutual Insurance Co. board members George H. Nee and Henry R. Boeniger from their posts.

In a half-hour hearing before Fortunato this morning, discussion centered on what laws regulate Beacon and whether the governor has the authority to remove members of the Beacon board.

Fortunato asked several times if he could have more time to read over what he called a “voluminous” amount of court documents in the matter that he received this morning after they were filed yesterday afternoon.

Nee and Boeniger, both Democrats who work for labor unions, are requesting a temporary restraining order against the governor.

Carcieri is seeking to purge the leadership of the state’s dominant workers’ compensation insurer, which has come under fire since the scathing report issued last month by outside consultants revealed that Beacon gave preferential rates to some companies and maintained "inappropriate relationships" with certain insurance agents.

As Nee and Boeniger accuse the Republican governor of discriminating against them because of their union affiliations, a Republican Beacon board member resigned yesterday. John A. Holmes Jr. said in his resignation letter to the governor that he wanted to put an end to accusations by fellow board members of “discrimination for not removing me from the Board because of our political affiliation.”

Read more in today’s Journal.

More to come on projo.com.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 12:02 PM | Comment

Study cites progress in reducing racial profiling

PROVIDENCE -- Rhode Island police have made some progress in reducing differences in the way they treat minority drivers, a new state racial profiling study released today says.

However, the police continued to both stop and search non-whites more often than whites.

Non-whites were about twice as likely to be searched as non-whites.

Meanwhile, the police continued to find contraband more often in vehicles
driven by whites. Contraband included mostly drugs, alcohol and guns.

Much of the improvement from the previous study, completed in 2003,
came in the way police searched the vehicles of different racial and ethnic
groups. The study said that three quarters of the municipal police
departments and two of the six state police barracks reduced the disparity
between white and non-white searches.

Read an executive summary of the report.

-- Journal staff writer Bruce Landis

The study's authors, experts from Northeastern University's Institute on Race and Justice, said that "represents a dramatic improvement."

Since the previous study, 14 police departments reduced the disparity between non-white stops and the number of non-whites in the driving population, but the disparity increased in 13 other jurisdictions, the study said. The change in the other 12 jurisdictions was negligible, it said.

The new study covers data on 288,483 traffic stops by every police department in the state during the year ending Sept. 30, 2005. All municipal police and the state police were supposed to fill out a data card each time they stopped a vehicle. The information included the race of the driver, the reason for the stop and whether a search was conducted.

-- Journal staff writer Bruce Landis

Posted by Jack Perry at 11:28 AM | Comment

Happy Independence Day

Today is Independence Day -- in Rhode Island anyway.

Governor Carcieri will recognize the day of special observance during an 11:45 a.m. ceremony at the State House.

May 4th was established as Rhode Island Independence Day as a tribute to members of the state's General Assembly who renounced allegiance to the British crown on May 4, 1776, declaring Rhode Island sovereign and independent, according to the state General Assembly's Web site.

Rhode Island was the first of the 13 colonies to take such an official action, the site says.

Posted by Jack Perry at 10:16 AM | Comment

Restored section of Cliff Walk opens today

A restored portion of Newport’s famed Cliff Walk will open to the public today after a 1 p.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the early completion of a $4.3 million restoration project.

The Rhode Island Department of Transportation’s ceremony will be on the Cliff Walk behind the Rosecliff mansion on Bellevue Avenue in Newport.

The Cliff Walk follows the natural beauty of the Newport shoreline while highlighting the grandeur of the Newport mansions.

The restoration project was designed to repair undermined sections of the Cliff Walk and to prevent any further erosion of the southern section of the Cliff Walk from Ruggles Avenue to Bailey’s Beach, according to the DOT.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 9:28 AM | Comment

Air National Guard unit departs for southwest Asia

Today is a day of goodbyes for the families and friends of 22 men and women in the Rhode Island Air National Guard who are expected to depart this morning for a two-month stint in southwest Asia, according to Lt. Col. Michael M. McNamara, spokesman for the Rhode Island National Guard.

Members of the 143rd Airlift Wing will meet at 8:30 a.m. at the Quonset Air National Guard Base on Airport Road in North Kingstown to conduct their final checks for equipment and baggage and to say goodbye to their families and friends before a 10 a.m. takeoff, McNamara said.

The 22 Guardsmen will fly to Greece and then on to Qatar, which will be their base of operation, McNamara said.

The Air National Guard’s 143rd Airlift Wing provides combat airlift and combat support for the coalition forces throughout the Middle East, so these servicemen and servicewomen will be transporting people and supplies all over southwest Asia with the C-130J transport aircraft, McNamara said.

These 22 members of the Air National Guard will join more than 390 Rhode Island Guardsmen on active duty. The Air National Guard tours last 60 to 90 days.

Another group of about 20 Guardsmen is nearing the end of its tour and should return home within the next few weeks after some overlap time with the new crew departing today, McNamara said.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 8:07 AM | Comment

Net income up 13 percent at CVS

CVS this morning reported first quarter net income of $329.6, or 39 cents a share.

That's an increase of 13.8 percent over the $289.7 million, or 34 cents a share, that the company made in the same period last year.

Total revenues for Rhode Island's largest corporation increased by 8.7 percent in the quarter to $10 million. Same store sales increased 6.2 percent for the quarter.

"First quarter results were driven by strong sales growth and healthy margins, said Tom Ryan, the company's chairman, president and CEO.

Ryan singled out the turnaround performance of stores in Florida and Texas that were acquired in 2004 in the Eckerd drugstore deal. For more go to http://investor.CVS.com

CVS, based in Woonsocket, operates 5,483 stores in 37 states and Washington D.C.

Posted by at 7:12 AM | Comment

Here comes the sun

PROVIDENCE -- Welcome back, sunshine.

After two days or rain, fog and drizzle, the skies have cleared over southern New England. Today will be partly cloudy with a high near 73 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

There's a chance of sprinkles early tomorrow morning and then a high near 80 degrees.

For more information and updates, check out projo.com's weather page.

Posted by Jack Perry at 7:00 AM | Comment