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January 22, 2007

Weather update: Flakes are falling, but how much?

PROVIDENCE -- Big, fluffy flakes are falling in Providence this evening. But don't get too excited.

The National Weather Service says that Rhode Island will only get around an inch of snow between now and tomorrow morning. It will be, however, the first substantial snowfall of the season.

And because temperatures will be in the 20s overnight and the ground is frozen, even a small accumulation could make for dangerous driving conditions, according to the weather service.

"The snow will stick and possibly make for slippery travel," reads the weather service forecast.

The heaviest snow from this system is expected to fall north of Rhode Island, along the Massachusetts Turnpike.

Get the latest conditions here, check for any snow-related closings here, and send in your snow snapshots here.

Posted by Steve Peoples at 7:59 PM | Comment

On deck: Celts aim to overcome San Antonio

You'll have to go to Boston to fill your local sports appetite tonight.

After Saturday's overtime loss at Washington Saturday, the Celtics try to regroup tonight at 7:30 against San Antonio at the TD Banknorth Garden.

Can't be there in person? Catch them on FSNE TV or WEEI-FM radio.

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 6:44 PM | Comment

Smoke-shop arraignments tomorrow, 3 years after raid

Narragansett Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas and six other tribal members are scheduled to appear in District Court tomorrow morning on charges stemming from a state police raid on a tribal smoke shop more than three years ago.

The group will face an array of criminal charges related to the July 2003 state police raid on the shop the tribe opened on its lands in Charlestown. The police were acting on a search warrant issued by a District Court judge to stop the sale of tax-free cigarettes. A violent struggle erupted when tribal members refused to accept the warrant.

Though some of those arrested appeared before bail commissioners at the time of their arrest, on July 14, 2003, District Court Judge Frank J. Cenerini last month ordered that they be formally arraigned in District Court.

The charges had been on hold as federal courts weighed what authority the state had. They were resurrected in November, when the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court's ruling that the state police could enforce Rhode Island laws, against the tribe, on tribal land.

"With the [1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals] decision in hand, we plan to prosecute these defendants as we would any other defendant in the system," Michael J. Healey, spokesman for the attorney general, said last week.

The arraignments are scheduled for 9 a.m. at the McGrath Judicial Complex in Wakefield.

More background on the charges ...

-- projo.com staff writer Steve Peoples

Posted by Steve Peoples at 6:06 PM | Comment

Reed heads military panel; Kennedy on appropriations

U.S. Sen. Jack Reed has added the chairmanship of a military subcommittee to his roster as the 110th Congress gets under way.

The Rhode Islander, a West Point graduate and former Army Ranger who has emerged as a Democratic leader on military affairs, has already been chosen to sit on two powerful committees: Armed Services and Appropriations.

He announced today that he will chair the Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, whose focus includes combating terrorism and preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

“The global war on terror is not a conventional war and Iraq is not the frontline. It is a special operations war, fought on many fronts and relying on intelligence and special operations troops,” Reed said in a statement. “As chairman of the Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee, my focus will be overseeing our military’s special operations."

And Reed will also head the subcommittee that regulates financial markets and the insurance industry, as the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Subcommittee on on Securities, Insurance, and Investment. Reed previously worked as a lawyer for the Providence firm Edwards & Angell, which represents several banks.

-- projo.com staff writer Steve Peoples

Reed said he would use the subcommittee to address a shortage of nurses in Rhode Island and would work to "increase Pell Grants and other need-based grant aid to ensure that more Rhode Island students and their families can afford a college education."

Rhode Island's senior senator has also been named as the acting chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Administration, filling in for Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., who is recovering from a brain hemorrhage.

On the House side, U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy will also serve on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Administration, according to a statement released today by the Rhode Island Democrat's office.

The House Subcommittee on Military Construction and Veterans Affairs has direct oversight of all military construction and veteran-related issues. And it has tremendous influence in military spending.

In fiscal year 2006, for example, the House Military Construction, Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill recommended a total FY appropriation of $136.9 billion, according to Kennedy's office.

Posted by Steve Peoples at 4:58 PM | Comment

Providence Wal-Mart opens amid protests / Photo

Journal photo / Bob Breidenbach
Protesters travel down Silver Spring Street from the UFCW union hall to the new Wal-mart in Providence.

PROVIDENCE -- About 40 protesters greeted shoppers this afternoon as they arrived at the capital city's first Wal-Mart.

The 135,247-square-foot chain store at the corner of Charles and Silver Spring streets opened its doors for the first time this morning. Open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily, it will employ 350 people in a mix of full- and part-time jobs, according to company officials.

But the protesters, representing Local 328 of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, criticized Wal-Mart for what they said were low wages and unfair hiring practices.

“Wal-Mart wages war on its workers,” Jim Riley, secretary-treasurer of Local 328, said to a crowd of about 40 protesters gathered on the sidewalk across from the store's main entrance.

The group, wielding signs that stated, "Wal-Mart violates child labor laws" and other slogans, drew the attention of several customers as they drove into the packed parking lot. Some shoppers yelled criticism and others words of encouragement to the protesters, who gathered for about half an hour.

Company spokeswoman Melissa O'Brien, meanwhile, said that Wal-Mart has changed its employee benefits in recent years "to be more reflective of [workers'] needs."

She said the number of workers participating in the company's health benefits package rose 10 percent last year. She also said workers at the Providence store are earning, on average, $10.45 an hour, more than the $10.11 an hour Wal-Mart pays, on average, to its workers in the United States.

And while the union loyalists criticized Wal-Mart for discrimating against its female workers, the Providence store manager said three of the six assistant managers there are women.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Paul Grimaldi

Posted by Steve Peoples at 4:47 PM | Comment

CVS officials to be arraigned next week

PROVIDENCE -- Two CVS officials accused of bribery, conspiracy and fraud are set to be arraigned in federal court next week, the U.S. Attorney's Office said this afternoon.

Company executives Carlos Ortiz and John R. "Jack'' Kramer were accused in a 23-count indictment last week of fraud and bribery stemming from the hiring of former state Sen. John A. Celona.

Celona was a $1,000-a-month consultant from early 2000 to the fall of 2003, the indictment says, who was paid a total of about $45,000 and lavished with golf outings, trips to Florida and California and tickets to professional sporting events.

The indictment alleges that the two engineered the agreement in order to gain legislative action favorable to drugstore giant CVS.

Ortiz and Kramer are scheduled to appear together in U.S. District Court, Tuesday, Jan. 30, at 10 a.m. before Judge David L. Martin.

Kramer, of East Greenwich, and Ortiz, of Amherst, Mass., have been on leave from their CVS jobs since 2004.

-- projo.com staff writer Steve Peoples

Posted by Steve Peoples at 4:09 PM | Comment

No autopsy results yet in Cranston woman's death

CRANSTON -- The police said today that the autopsy results on the woman found dead in her Hopewell Avenue home last week probably will not be released until Wednesday, at the earliest.

Several police cruisers blocked the dead-end street after the body was discovered last Thursday, while detectives and members of the department's Bureau of Criminal Identification investigated. But the police have not said they suspect foul play in the death, according to police spokesman Maj. Ronald T. Blackmar.

-- Journal staff writer Benjamin N. Gedan

Posted by Steve Peoples at 4:02 PM | Comment

Jury gets Fall River murder case

TAUNTON, Mass. -- The question of whether Karen Cordeiro is guilty of murder or if she killed Courtney Sau in self defense two years ago in Fall River went to the jury this afternoon.

The nine men and three women began deliberating after Cordeiro's lawyer suggested that Cordeiro, 22, acted in defense of her roommate, who had left their apartment to confront Sau, 19. Sau had driven to Fall River to pick a fight.

But prosecutor Steven Gagne countered that Cordeiro fully intended to kill Sau. She bled to death after Cordeiro's roommate struck her in the face with a broken beer bottle and Cordeiro, armed with two steak knives, stabbed her in the neck and back.

Defense lawyer Francis O'Boy reminded the jurors that people who knew Cordeiro described her as a peaceful person.

But Gagne noted that instead of calling the police, keeping her door locked or seeking the help of the three men in her apartment, Cordeiro armed herself with two steak knives before going outside to taunt and confront Sau, who was unarmed and sitting in her car.

Said Gagne: "How peaceful was that?"

-- Journal staff writer C. Eugene Emery Jr.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 2:51 PM | Comment

Providence officials: Major crime down 12 percent

PROVIDENCE -- Major crime in the capital city was down 12 percent from 2005 to 2006, police and community leaders announced at a news conference today.

That’s a difference between 11,190 major crimes in 2005 to 9,829 last year.

Major crime, as defined by the Federal Bureau of Investigations, includes murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft and larceny.

Total crime is down 30 percent from 2002, the year before Police Chief Dean Esserman took the reins of the department, through 2006. Esserman began in his current post in January 2003.

The 14,039 major crimes committed in 2002 fell to the 9,829 in 2006, according to the police.

Joining Esserman at this afternoon’s news conference were Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline, police officers, other law-enforcement agencies and community groups such as the Urban League and the NAACP.

The Journal reported yesterday that murders in the capital city fell from 22 in 2005 to 11 last year, and that violent crime overall declined sharply in 2006, by 18.6 percent, according to a preliminary police document on crime figures obtained by The Journal.

In that article, Esserman pointed to improved law enforcement strategy and tactics such as the streetworkers and gun task force having a cumulative effect.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Gregory Smith

Posted by Kate Bramson at 2:40 PM | Comment

Expert testifies about blood in murder trial

CRANSTON – The murder trial of Gerardo E. Martinez continued this morning with testimony from Warwick police criminalist Walter Williams.

An expert in blood pattern interpretation, Williams detailed evidence he collected in Martinez's Warwick Avenue home that prosecutors say links Martinez with the killing of his girlfriend, Lindsay A. Burke.

Martinez, a former Navy seaman, is accused of murdering his girlfriend by slitting her throat and leaving her body in the bathtub in his house. Burke, 23, was killed on Sept. 14, 2005.

The trial is in Kent County Superior Court, in Warwick.

-- Journal staff writer Benjamin N. Gedan

Posted by Kate Bramson at 2:03 PM | Comment

Update: Inmate killed in accident at ACI

CRANSTON – An inmate at the Adult Correctional Institutions was killed this morning when he was accidentally run over by a box truck that had just completed a delivery to the minimum security facility's kitchen.

The state prison is attempting to notify the family of the 52-year-old white male, spokeswoman Ann Fortin said. Until they can be notified, the ACI is not releasing the man’s name, she said.

The inmate was outside and not in a prohibited area, Fortin said. He was pronounced dead at 10:55 a.m.

The state police are now investigating, Fortin said. Mental health staff are at the prison to provide counseling to staff and inmates.

In the wake of the incident, all visits to minimum security have been cancelled for the day.

The ACI has not released the name of the person driving the truck since the accident is “actively under investigation,” she said. Fortin did say he was a correctional officer.

However, knowing that families of approximately 700 people in the minimum security facility will want to know the identity of the prisoner, Fortin said they are releasing some identifying information.

The man’s last city of residence was Pawtucket. He was serving a 90-day sentence for a probation violation, and his anticipated release date was Feb. 13. He also faced a pending charge for possession of a controlled substance, Fortin said.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

Crews respond to accident at ACI
Posted 11:15 a.m.

CRANSTON – There’s been an accident at the minimum security facility for the Adult Correctional Institutions.

Inspectors and the state prison’s assistant director of institutions and operations, Jake Gadsden, are at the facility now. More details about the accident are not yet available, according to ACI spokeswoman Ann Fortin.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

Posted by Kate Bramson at 1:07 PM | Comment

$1million PowerBall ticket sold in R.I.

No one won Saturday night's $212 million PowerBall jackpot.

But someone in Rhode Island is $1 million richer, according to an announcement released today by the state lottery.

Someone bought a ticket at Lincoln Park that matched the first five numbers -- but not the PowerBall number -- of Saturday's drawing. Generally, matching the first five numbers pays $200,000. But because the player purchased the "Power Play" feature, the prize was multiplied by five.

There were also three $10,000 winning tickets sold in Rhode Island. None of the prizes have been claimed yet, according to the state lottery.

The estimated jackpot for Wednesday's PowerBall drawing is $240 million.

Posted by Steve Peoples at 12:26 PM | Comment

Former Pats' coach Parcells retires

IRVING, Texas -- Former Patriots' coach Bill Parcells retired from coaching today, leaving the Dallas Cowboys after four seasons and ending a stellar career that featured three Super Bowl appearances and two championships.

The announcement came 15 days after the Cowboys' season ended with a heartbreaking playoff loss in Seattle. He'd been at his office nearly every day since, and there were other indications that the 65-year-old coach was returning for a fifth year in Dallas and 20th as an NFL head coach.

"I am in good health and feel lucky to have been able to coach in the NFL for an extended period of time," he said in a statement. "I leave the game and the NFL with nothing but good feelings and gratitude to all the players, coaches and other people that have assisted me in that regard. "

Parcells coached the Patriots for four seasons, from 1993 through the 1996. He resigned after leading the Patriots to Super Bowl XXXI against the Green Bay Packers, a game the Patriots lost.

-- The Associated Press

Posted by Jack Perry at 12:17 PM | Comment

Update: Fire at Central Falls business / Photo

Journal photo / Bill Murphy
Central Falls firefighters battle a fire at AMC Exclusives at Fales and Railroad Streets this morning. The fire was reported at 9:23 a.m.

Posted by Kate Bramson at 12:00 PM | Comment

A rare sight: Snow is falling, send us your photos

RICHMOND – What started out this morning as very light flurries is looking more snow-like every moment.

The ground is starting to turn white.

The National Weather Service says little accumulation is expected, but the roads could get slippery.

Upload your snow photos and check out more weather photos at projo.com's weather page.

-- projo.com staffer Andrea Panciera

Posted by Kate Bramson at 9:42 AM | Comment

Gas prices drop 7 cents

Gasoline prices have dropped another seven cents this week, the fourth week in a row that prices have fallen, according to AAA Southern New England.

The average price for regular, unleaded gasoline is $2.289 per gallon at the self-service pump, according to AAA's weekly survey.

The price has dropped 13 cents since the beginning of the month, and it's 11 cents per gallon cheaper than it was at this time last year.

Posted by Jack Perry at 9:34 AM | Comment

Blue Monday in New England; Blue Heaven in Indy

So the Pats lost their bid last night to return to the Super Bowl.

If that wasn't reason enough to fret, a British psychologist has officially designated today, January 22, "Blue Monday," the most depressing day of the year.

He used mathematical equations to conclude that people are most likely to get the blues today because of a combination of bad weather, Christmas debts and broken New Year resolutions.

He didn't mention anything about a favorite football team blowing a 21-3 lead.

In Indiana this morning, football fans are plenty blue, but that's a good thing -- for them. Indystar.com reports the Colts' first Indy-era Super Bowl bid under the headline 'Blue Heaven!'

Read it, if you want to weep.

Posted by Jack Perry at 9:32 AM | Comment

Sen. Reed to announce committee assignments

PROVIDENCE – Sen. Jack Reed is set to announce his full roster of committee assignments this morning as Democrats firm up their control of Congress.

Reed serves on four committees -- Appropriations, Armed Services, Banking and Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

With new leadership in the Senate, the Rhode Island Democrat is poised to assume the chairmanship of two key subcommittees.

One subcommittee oversees the stock exchange, financial markets and the insurance industry. A second subcommittee that Reed will chair focuses on combating terrorism abroad and at home by preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction and cracking down on drug traffickers.

Reed will formally make the committee announcements at his office in Cranston.

-- The Associated Press

Posted by Kate Bramson at 8:27 AM | Comment

Smithfield High closed due to water main break

SMITHFIELD – At 4 a.m. today, the superintendent of schools learned that a water main break was causing troubles in the district.

Smithfield Senior High School has no water today because the water main that broke around 10 last night leads right into the school. That meant Supt. Robert M. O’Brien had to cancel school.

“You can’t have school without water,” O’Brien explained.

But luckily, he said, the nearby Vincent J. Gallagher Middle School and the Anna M. McCabe Elementary School are not served by the same water main. School’s in session at those two schools because the water main that broke only affects the high school, he said.

A road near the high school is closed off as crews work this morning, O’Brien said. He’s hoping everything will be repaired in time for school tomorrow.

-- projo.com staff writer Kate Bramson

Posted by Kate Bramson at 8:00 AM | Comment

Traffic: Accident on Route 195 West

PROVIDENCE -- An accident on Route 195 West in Providence is slowing the morning commute.

The state Department of Transportation has issued a traffic alert for the accident, which is near the exit for Route 103/ Route 44.

The crash is affecting traffic in the left lanes.

For other traffic needs, check out the state roadways, via the Department of Transportation's online traffic offerings.

You can find any traffic alerts describing accidents here, browse traffic cams to see real-time photos of the highways and check out the DOT’s road construction schedule here.

Also, check out congestion mapping -- i.e., how heavy the traffic is -- here.

To report a traffic incident, call the Transportation Management Center at (401) 222-5826 and choose option #2.

Posted by Jack Perry at 7:48 AM | Comment

Central Falls Catholic church might close

CENTRAL FALLS -- One of the state's oldest French-Canadian churches may close.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence confirms that the group that oversees Notre Dame in Central Falls has asked the Bishop of Providence to close and possibly decommission the church.

The church pastor and church trustees say the building needs extensive renovations and repairs that could cost several million dollars.

A diocesan spokesman says Bishop Thomas Tobin will consider the request to close -- but the decision may take awhile.

The brick Romanesque church with a 195-foot steeple was dedicated in 1933. It survived two hurricanes and is the second oldest church in the diocese that originally served a mostly French-Canadian congregation who worked in the area's mills.

-- The Associated Press

Posted by Kate Bramson at 7:22 AM | Comment

Chance of snow, freezing rain

PROVIDENCE -- There's a chance of snow and freezing rain this afternoon and tonight, according to the National Weather Service.

It's 21 degrees in Providence at 6:45 a.m., and the high is expected to reach only 30 degrees with a calm wind.

We'll see a lot of clouds.

For more weather and regular updates, see projo.com/weather.

Posted by Jack Perry at 7:01 AM | Comment

Today's front page

On the front page of today's Journal, a photograph of a grim-faced Patriots' linebacker Tedy Bruschi tells the story of last night's loss to the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship game. A Bill Reynolds column helps put the loss in perspective and maybe even helps forlorn Pats' fans feel a little better this morning.

Download today's front page in .pdf format.

Posted by Jack Perry at 7:00 AM | Comment