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May 12, 2006

Johnston council plans vote tied to casino plan

JOHNSTON -- The Town Council plans to vote Tuesday night on a measure that would move Johnston one step closer to becoming home to a casino owned by Donald Trump.

Notice of a special meeting for the purpose was posted on the secretary of state's Web site late today.

The council will consider a resolution requesting that the General Assembly enact legislation to allow local voters to vote in November as to "whether a destination resort casino shall be allowed in town."

The meeting is set for 7:30 p.m. at the Johnston Municipal Court, 1395 Atwood Ave.

The council is also expected to vote on a memorandum of understanding between the town and the Trump outfit, Ocean State Gaming Ventures.

Even if the Town Council approves the measure, the plan faces an uphill battle.

Trump's proposal, like a similar proposal to bring a casino to West Warwick, would require the state constitution to be changed -- something that requires a General Assembly vote and another statewide vote in the November election.

A recent poll found that Rhode Island voters are evenly split on whether to change the constitution to accommodate a casino.

Posted by Steve Peoples at 6:55 PM | Comment

Woman pleads no contest in revenge murder

PROVIDENCE -- One of three people charged in the revenge murder of a Providence woman has entered a no contest plea and received a 45-year prison term.

The Attorney General's Office says Shonda Northup pleaded no contest yesterday to second-degree murder in the killing of Stacy Ann Brissett, 19.

Brissett's body was found partially submerged in the Yantic River in Norwich, Conn., last July.

Authorities allege Northup, along with her sister, Tawanna Sampson, and their cousin, Shea Cook, killed Brissett last July in Charlestown and dumped her body.

Criminal cases are still pending against Sampson and Cook.

Northup is 25 and is from Ledyard, Conn. She also pleaded no contest to conspiracy and weapons charges.

-- Associated Press

The charges stem from the July 26 slaying of Brissett, a native of Jamaica, who was shot three times and strangled before her body was dumped.

Seven weeks earlier, her boyfriend, Dwayne Sampson, was killed outside their Providence home. The case is unsolved.

The police say that his sisters, Northup and Sampson, and cousin, Cook, believed that Brissett had set up her boyfriend to be killed.

-- Associated Press and Journal archival reports

Posted by Steve Peoples at 6:45 PM | Comment

Open house at URI East Farm on despite rain

SOUTH KINGSTOWN -- Despite the rain, the University of Rhode Island plans to go forward tomorrow with its annual open house at East Farm.

Perennial flowers grown by master gardeners from around the state will be on sale at the free open house, which runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The farm is on Route 108 about a mile south of its intersection with Route 138.

URI had announced a rain date of Sunday, but with so much rain forecast for the weekend it decided yesterday to have the open house as planned -- rain or no rain.

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 6:25 PM | Comment

Flood watch for region on through tomorrow

A flood watch for the region, on through late tomorrow night, has been expanded to cover Rhode Island and southeast Massachusetts.

The National Weather Service bureau in Taunton, Mass., said rain will fall heavily at times across the area, with 2 to 4 inches expected through tomorrow. Higher amounts are possible.

The rain will bring the potential for urban as well as small-stream flooding.

Get the latest forecasts, live radar views and more ...

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 5:56 PM | Comment

Update: 2nd detonation of old Jamestown bridge delayed

The second detonation of the old Jamestown Bridge has been pushed back a day because of this week's rain, the state Department of Transportation said today.

The new target date is Wednesday, May 17, between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m.

However, the DOT cannot be certain that date will work either, said Frank Corrao, deputy chief engineer for the DOT. The new detonation day has been set based on current weather conditions and predictions, he said this afternoon.

The DOT plans to detonate the deck trusses and six girder spans, as well as the top 50 feet of the two center supporting piers that were beneath the center span the DOT demolished last month, Corrao said.

If all goes well, the DOT might not need the third planned detonation, which was to be sometime before the Fourth of July, he said.

The first blast, which brought down the bridge's center span, drew thousands of spectators last month to the shores of Narragansett Bay.

Initially, the DOT expected this second detonation would be just the two outer sides of the bridge, and the third detonation would be those center piers, he said.

The DOT had said each of three large detonations would require them to close the new Jamestown Bridge for four hours each, but with the first detonation, the roadway was open after two hours, Corrao said. Now, if they can avoid a third hours-long closure during the height of tourist season, he said, “That’s good for everyone.”

For the explosion planned next week, the DOT must have time without heavy wind or heavy rain, for the safety of its workers, so they can set the charges for the detonation in place, Corrao said.

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

Posted by Jack Perry at 5:36 PM | Comment

Update: Woonsocket girl died of strangulation, head injuries

Savannah Smith, the 8-year-old Woonsocket girl who was found murdered early Monday, died of “manual strangulation and blunt-force injuries of head,” the state Medical Examiner’s Office announced this afternoon.

The one-sentence announcement was signed by Dr. Thomas Gilson, the chief medical examiner. It provided no other information.

Savannah was found in Cranston on Monday. A suspect has been arrested. Authorities have been tightlipped about her death.

The funeral home handling her services said today that calling hours will be Monday from 4 to 8 p.m. at the T. Lauzon Funeral Home, 185 Spring St., Woonsocket.

The funeral service will take place the next day at 9:30 a.m. at Sacred Heart Church, Second Avenue, Woonsocket. Burial will follow at St. Charles Cemetery in Blackstone, Mass.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 3:36 PM | Comment

Biechele transferred to minimum security at ACI

CRANSTON -- Daniel M. Biechele, who was sentenced this week for his role in triggering The Station nightclub fire, was transferred this morning from the intake center at the Adult Correctional Institutions to the minimum security facility.

Prison spokesman Kenneth G. Findlay said Biechele was moved to a minimum-security dorm at about 11 a.m. He had been in custody since his 4-year prison term was handed down on Wednesday afternoon.

The minimum-security dorms do not have cells. They have a series of rooms on a central corridor. The rooms house two to 12 men on bunk beds. The doors to the rooms are not usually locked, and inmates can move freely into the hallway or the dorm’s day room.

The outside doors to the building are locked, and a chain-link fence encloses the prison yard.

-- Journal staff writer Paul Edward Parker

Most inmates in minimum security work a job each day. That can be work release, where a prisoner reports to an employer each workday morning and returns to the prison in the evening. Or it can be correctional industries, which includes a wide variety of jobs, such as making and delivering furniture to customers of the ACI, picking up litter along highways or janitorial work inside the ACI.

Minimum-security inmates are allowed up to three one-hour visits per week. Visits take place in a cafeteria-like room, and inmates are not physically separated from their visitors, though contact is limited, said Findlay. “They can have a brief embrace and kiss,” he said.

Biechele had pleaded guilty to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter for lighting the pyrotechnics that started the fire at the club. One hundred people died in the Feb. 20, 2003, blaze, the worst in the state's history.

-- Journal staff writer Paul Edward Parker

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 3:20 PM | Comment

$1.4M arrives for recovery of R.I. brownfields

The Environmental Protection Agency today awarded seven grants worth $1.4 million to revitalize contaminated industrial and commercial sites across Rhode Island.

The funding will help pay to assess, clean and redevelop abandoned,
contaminated parcels known as brownfields. Rhode Island's share is among $69.9
million of brownfields grants announced today by the EPA, including almost $11 million within New England.

U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee, R-R.I., was on hand this afternoon to help announce the awards, $400,000 of which will go to the city of Providence, and another $400,000 to Woonsocket, to assess levels of contamination at various sites and determine which are best suited for re-development or open space initiatives.

Seven $200,000 grants were awarded in Rhode Island.

Posted by Steve Peoples at 2:39 PM | Comment

National teachers union endorses Whitehouse

The National Education Association announced today its endorsement of Sheldon Whitehouse in the race for the U.S. Senate.

Whitehouse will likely face the winner of the Republican primary -- incumbent Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee or his challenger, Cranston Mayor Stephen Laffey -- in November's general election.

"This year, Rhode Island's educators have an extraordinary opportunity to send to Washington a Whitehouse we can trust to be there for us, to help our kids get the best education possible," Larry Purtill, president of the union's Rhode Island affiliate, said in a statement. "Electing Sheldon Whitehouse our next U.S. senator is clearly in the best interests of NEA members and their families, as well as Rhode Island, our country, and our children."

The National Education Association is a teachers union with 2.7 million members across the country.

Posted by Steve Peoples at 2:04 PM | Comment

Woman charged with selling fake immigration docs

PROVIDENCE -- A local woman appeared in U.S. District Court earlier today to face a charge that she sold counterfeit immigration and Social Security cards.

Prosecutors allege that Julia Pensoy-Calel, 51, of Newark Avenue, Providence, sold fake Resident Alien Cards -- also known as green cards -- and Social Security cards for $125 a set.

Federal agents listened in on phone conversations in which the transactions were discussed, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, which is prosecuting Pensoy-Calel on the felony charge.

Federal judge David L. Martin today set Pensoy-Calel's bail at $5,000 with surety.

Posted by Steve Peoples at 1:55 PM | Comment

Update: Families descend on returning Guard / Photo

Journal photo / John Freidah
Sgt. Michael Duffy, of the 3rd Battalion, 172nd Infantry/Mountain Company of the Rhode Island Army National Guard, is met by his family today at Quonset.

NORTH KINGSTOWN -- The Rhode Island National Guard's 172nd Infantry Company returned home to Quonset Air National Guard base this morning, to a screaming crowd of several hundred people.

About 115 Guard members, a few from other units, touched down with the 172nd around 8 a.m.

Upon leaving the airplane, the unit briefly tried to line up in formation in the airport hanger, but the family members and friends of the returning soldiers couldn't stand to wait -- they charged their loved ones and the scene dissolved into an excited mayhem.

The 172nd left Rhode Island on deployment in January 2005, and has spent the last 11 months in Iraq, where it was involved in anti-insurgency operations.

Headquartered at Camp Fogarty in East Greenwich, the combat infantry company did not suffer any casualties during the deployment, according to the National Guard.

Governor Carcieri and Lt. Gov. Charles Fogarty mingled with the returning soldiers, shaking hands and welcoming them back.

The Rhode Island National Guard now has 270 members deployed overseas.

-- Journal staff writer Mark Arsenault and projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson.

Posted by Jack Perry at 12:39 PM | Comment

Canadian premiers meet governors in Newport / Photo

Journal photo / Frieda Squires
Prince Edward Island Premier Pat Binns, left, and Governor Carcieri take their seats as co-chairs of the conference, being held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, Newport.

NEWPORT -- Governor Carcieri and Premier Pat Binns of Prince Edward Island opened the 30th Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers today at the Hyatt Regency Hotel.

The governors and premiers will spend two days discussing regional issues, including energy policy, oceans, the environment and trade between the United States and Canada.

Rhode Island's Carcieri and Binns, co-chairmen of the conference, will host a state reception and state dinner tonight at Rosecliff mansion.

Posted by Jack Perry at 11:59 AM | Comment

More rain and fog today

Rain and fog this morning, with highs expected in the mid-50s for today.

The National Weather Service reports a flood watch will be in effect from this evening through late Saturday night for northern Rhode Island, eastern Massachusetts, northeastern Massachusetts, northern Connecticut and southern New Hampshire. That means there’s a potential for flooding based on current forecasts. So if you live in areas prone to flooding, the weather service urges you to be prepared.

Get the latest conditions and forecasts from projo.com.

Clouds and rain are still expected throughout the weekend and into next week.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 7:08 AM | Comment