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February 11, 2008

Coming up: Chief Justice Roberts to visit Providence

PROVIDENCE -- U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts is slated to visit Rhode Island tomorrow for a celebration of the federal courthouse in downtown Providence.

Roberts’ visit will highlight a yearlong centennial celebration of the five-story gray granite building, which was built between 1904 and 1908 as the Providence Post Office, Court House and Custom House.

Governor Carcieri is scheduled to be at the celebration, from 11 to 11:50 a.m. The governor's schedule also shows a noon to 2 p.m. federal courthouse centennial celebration luncheon at Cafe Nuovo, One Citizens Plaza, in Providence.

The Journal has reported that it will be the first time a sitting chief justice has come to Rhode Island since Charles Evan Hughes was here in 1937.

Yet Roberts' visit won't be the last by a sitting justice of the nation's highest court this year. Justice Antonin Scalia is scheduled to visit the Roger Williams University School of Law in Bristol in April.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 7:10 PM | Comment

LNG tanker adrift east of Cape Cod

The 933-foot liquefied natural gas tanker Catalunya Spirit is disabled and adrift in wind-driven seas some 37 miles east of Chatham, Mass., today. But the Coast Guard said the vessel is "not in immediate danger" and is drifting away from Cape Cod.

The Coast Guard said in a news release this evening that it is monitoring and helping the tanker, which lost propulsion. About 29 people are aboard the tanker, which is carrying a full load of liquefied natural gas from Trinidad and Tobago to Boston.

The tanker became disabled about 3 a.m. today. The crew is reporting hourly to Coast Guard in Boston.

Air Station Cape Cod has delivered a Coast Guard marine inspector and a technical representative to the Catalunya Spirit. The Coast Guard Cutter Escanaba is on scene with the tanker to assist with communication.

Teekay Corporation, the company that runs the Catalunya Spirit, has contracted with two tug boats to help; they expected to arrive on scene at 11:30 p.m. A second Coast Guard marine inspector is aboard one of the tugs.

There were 30- to 35-knot winds from the west with 12-foot seas late this afternoon, but that is expected to diminish during the night.

"As part of our response plan, we've notified our National Strike Team, and we're coordinating salvage and pollution response assets," Gail Kulisch, Captain of the port of Boston, said in the statement. "A very comprehensive safety system has been developed by the Coast Guard in conjunction with port partners and the shipping company to minimize the risk to the marine environment and public safety."

Concerns over safety led the Coast Guard last year to reject a proposed LNG tanker route up Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island en route to a terminal in Fall River in southeastern Massachusetts.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney at 7:04 PM | Comment

Providence teachers signal their dissatisfaction / Photo

Journal photo / Kris Craig
Teachers' union members demonstrate their dissatisfaction this afternoon in front of the School Administration building.

PROVIDENCE -- Carrying signs that said, “A Blizzard of Blunders” and “Stop the Nightmare,” nearly 50 teachers, all of them members of the Providence Teachers’ Union, picketed the School Board meeting this afternoon.

“Enough is enough,” said PTU President Steven Smith. “This is about two years of ineffective leadership.”

Smith said that the union’s executive board voted last week to hold a series of such informational pickets.

Teachers will also be asked to take a vote of no confidence in the leadership of Supt. Donnie Evans’ and School Board President Mary McClure on or about March 13. The union, however, does not plan to ask teachers to work to rule, a condition under which faculty only fulfill the letter of the law when it comes their jobs.

The union action comes as no surprise. Teachers and principals have been expressing their dissatisfaction with Evans’ leadership for the past two years, citing poor communication, a lack of support and no clear sense of direction. Those issues were compounded by two recent events: the Dec. 13 snowstorm, which left busloads of students stranded for hours, and the W-2 mistake, in which the school department failed to take out enough federal taxes from teachers’ paychecks, money that faculty members have to pay back.

“This is global,” said Bethany Beretta, a first-grade teacher at Nathanael Greene Middle School, which went without a principal for two months earlier this winter. “There has been a lack of leadership, a lack of direction and a lack of accountability.”

Evans, in a prepared statement, said that he values the dedication and hard work of each teacher but said that the district must focus on improving student performance.

“In order to accomplish this goal, we must do things differently,” he said. “The old ways of doing business in this district are simply not working.”

Evans also said that he and the board remain committed to negotiating a “forward-looking” contact that will put children first.

-- Journal staff writer Linda Borg

Posted by Mike McKinney at 6:00 PM | Comment

Oster trial: Defense lawyer seeks to sow doubt

PROVIDENCE -- The defense lawyer for ex-Lincoln Town Administrator Jonathan F. Oster this afternoon sought again to raise doubts about allegations that his client was entangled in a bribery scheme involving town-controlled land.

Lawyer C. Leonard O'Brien in part used cross examination of Robert Gelfuso, who was working on a Lincoln playground renovation under contract during Oster's 2000-2002 term, to turn attention to Stephen Balestra, who was Lincoln's federal money coordinator and designated contact for the playground project.

Gelfuso testified in Providence County Superior Court that at one point Robert Picerno, a then-Lincoln Planning Board member, suggested Gelfuso and Gelfuso's business partner David Wayne Daniel bill the town for extra items that would never be installed and that Balestra would sign off on them -- and Picerno and Gelfuso could split the money for the never-installed items.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with reports from Journal staff writer John Hill

Picerno, who pleaded no contest in 2004 to bribery and conspiracy, is a former Oster political ally.

Oster faces two counts of bribery and two counts of conspiracy involving alleged bribes he and Picerno are said to have sought from potential buyers of the H&H Screw Co., about six acres on Route 116 in Lincoln. The state's case alleges Picerno and Oster conspired to extract a $25,000 bribe from Gelfuso in exchange for selling the property to Gelfuso and Daniel for $105,000.

Oster does not face charges with regards to the handling of the contract to renovate Fairlawn Playground, which is on different land, but Judge Gilbert V. Indeglia ruled the state could use it to try to demonstrate a behaviorial pattern by Picerno and Oster.

Under a prosecutor's direct examination, Gelfuso continued testifying this afternoon about his dealings with Picerno and Picerno's efforts to collect bribes from him. Gelfuso also talked about his working with the State Police.

Gelfuso said State Police were particularly interested in his getting Picerno to elaborate and specify what role, if any, Oster had in the scheme.

O'Brien questioned Gelfuso about events concerning his experience on the $150,000 playground renovation in the town's Fairlawn section.

Read a report from this morning's testimony here.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 4:15 PM | Comment

Opponents of Somerset gas plant to meet tonight

Journal photo / Bob Thayer
The Somerset Station power plant on Riverside Avenue, north of the Brightman Street Bridge, as it appears today.

SOMERSET, Mass. -- Groups hoping to block a plan that would allow the town's smaller electric power plant to convert coal into synthetic natural gas will hold a "public citizen's hearing" tonight at 6:30 p.m. at the AmVets Hall, 659 Brayton Ave.

NRG Energy, which owns the Somerset Station, says the conversion process, which uses high energy gas, is clean, efficient and would allow the plant to also burn clean biomass, such as wood chips.

But critics say NRG should stick to its original 2002 promise to either close the facility or convert the plant from coal to clean natural gas by 2010.

There is fear that the gassification process could be used to burn construction and demolition debris, which can contain dangerous and unregulated chemicals.

NRG says that won't happen without further approval from the Massachusetts Department of Environment Protection. Last month the DEP approved the plasma gassification process for coal and clean biomass. Environmental groups are appealing.

The plant, formerly known as Montaup, is three miles northeast of the much larger Brayton Point Power Station.

-- Journal staff writer C. Eugene Emery Jr.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 4:13 PM | Comment

Public defender, AG's office battle over 'gap kids'

PROVIDENCE -- The chief public defender is accusing the attorney general’s office of displaying stunning “audacity” by trying to proceed with felony cases against 17-year-old “gap kids.” even as prosecutors appeal a ruling that dismisses those cases.

The attorney general's office, which is appealing a ruling that dismisses those cases, accuses the chief public defender of being “disingenuous,” it is not trying to bring any of those cases to a conclusion but is, rather, “exercising its statutory right to appeal while maintaining the status quo.”

The sharply worded debate came before Superior Court Presiding Justice Joseph F. Rodgers Jr. this morning. Judge Rodgers said he plans to issue a decision within 48 hours.

In July, the General Assembly adopted Governor Carcieri’s budget proposal to save money by treating 17-year-olds as adults in criminal matters.

But the savings turned out to be questionable, at best, and in November the legislature repealed the law without making the repeal retroactive. That created a group of about 500 “gap kids” charged as adults between July 1 and Nov. 8.

Last week, Superior Court Judge Daniel A. Procaccini dismissed felony charges filed against 115 of those teens, saying they should have had Family Court hearings to determine if probable cause existed to charge them with crimes in Superior Court.

But Procaccini agreed to put his ruling on hold for 20 days so the attorney general’s office could appeal to the state Supreme Court, and he rejected the public defender’s request to lift that stay.

-- Journal staff writer Edward Fitzpatrick

In a legal brief, chief public defender John J. Hardiman said state prosecutors had made a motion that would allow them to proceed with prosecuting those 17-year-olds despite Procaccini’s ruling.

“The audacity of the attorney general’s request is astonishing: because he does not agree with the trial court’s dismissal of these actions, he requests leave to simply ignore it by proceeding on an accelerated path to disposition as if this court had never issued its decision at all,” Hardiman wrote.

“He wants to totally undercut this court’s dismissal by moving ahead with proceedings 100 percent inconsistent with dismissal and by so doing deprive these defendants of precisely the relief that this court held is due them.”

Hardiman cited a 1977 case in which the Supreme Court of Louisiana rejected an attempt by prosecutors to get around a ruling that rejected a change of venue for a highly publicized case, and he accused Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch of “trying to play the same game” to get around the decision to dismiss the cases.

“The suggestion that proceeding with the prosecution is somehow a reasonable next step is preposterous,” Hardiman wrote. “Besides, it is inequitable. The defendants sought relief in this court and they won that relief. If the attorney general is allowed nonetheless to proceed with these prosecutions -- as if dismissal had never been granted -- that relief will surely be a hollow victory.”

In a legal brief, Special Assistant Attorney General Christian F. Capizzo said, “It must be noted at the outset that the public defender’s blatant misstatement of the facts and court proceedings regarding the above cases is disingenuous.”

The attorney general’s office never made a motion to proceed with prosecution of those cases, Capizzo said. Rather, the public defender requested a stay of all proceedings in those cases, and prosecutors “merely objected,” he said.

“At no time has the state moved to put the above cases on a so-called ‘accelerated path to disposition’ as the public defender wants this court to believe,” Capizzo wrote. “At no time has the state proposed to move these cases to final adjudication in order to circumvent the court’s decision. In actuality, the state is merely looking to maintain the status quo under the law as it currently exists.”

Prosecutors do want to continue with arraignments, bail violations and status conferences involving these 17-year-olds, attorney general’s spokesman Michael J. Healey said. But, he said, “We are not talking about substantive pretrial conferences at which both sides ordinarily could be expected to talk about possible disposition. And we are not talking about disposition.”

Capizzo said, “The state is exercising its statutory right to appeal while maintaining the status quo and following the law as proscribed in the state of Rhode Island. One does not have to turn to distant states and long-ago decisions, as the public defender has resorted to, in order to determine how the law in Rhode Island applies to these cases.”

Also, Capizzo questioned whether the stay sought by the public defender would result in the release of “dangerous individuals” now being held without bail, or whether the state would be precluded from prosecuting them if they committed new offenses or violated bail conditions.

In his brief, Hardiman said, “There is a simple solution to the attorney general’s apparent need to rush to judgment: Let him proceed in the Family Court.” But Capizzo said it has not been determined whether Family Court would have jurisdiction.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 3:51 PM | Comment

Update: N. Providence officer convicted of most counts

PROVIDENCE -- A suspended North Providence police sergeant has been convicted of nine of 10 charges against him, including two counts of burglary, following a Superior Court trial.

Judge Robert D. Krause ordered Sgt. Michael Ciresi held on $1 million bail surety, meaning $100,000 cash or the full amount in property, and he was taken from the courtroom in handcuffs.

A sentencing date has not been set.

Along with the two counts of burglary, Ciresi was convicted of two counts of conspiracy to commit burglary, use of a firearm in the commission of a crime of violence, receiving a stolen generator (a misdemeanor), attempted larceny from a stolen ATM, harboring a criminal and obstruction of a police officer.

He was found not guilty of receiving a stolen gold and diamond bracelet (a felony).

The jury began deliberations on Thursday after hearing 10 days of testimony from convicts, crime victims, informants and members of the North Providence and Pawtucket police departments and state police.

Closing arguments focused in part on charges tied to Ciresi’s role in the burglary of a drug dealer’s apartment at 459 East Ave., Pawtucket, two days before Christmas 2004. Soon after the break-in, Mark Pine, the burglar captured at the scene, told Pawtucket police that he had been joined by Ciresi. He said the officer had given him gloves, a mask and a gun. The police found Ciresi’s gun behind a trash basket in the apartment.

Lawyers argued whether Ciresi was an officer who has been falsely accused or one who enlisted drug-dealing informants to commit crimes for his financial gain.

On Friday afternoon, the jurors asked the judge to see transcripts of testimony of two witnesses -- informant Pine, who was caught burglarizing the home in which he used a gun belonging to Ciresi, and retired North Providence police Capt. Christopher Cardarelli, who was Ciresi’s superior at the time and is currently a North Providence firefighter.

-- Journal staff writer Richard Dujardin and Journal archival reports

Posted by Mike McKinney at 2:55 PM | Comment

Barrington police post reward for clues to car break-ins

BARRINGTON -- Frustrated by dozens of unsolved overnight breaks into cars parked in driveways near Rumstick Road, police today posted a $500 reward for information that leads to an arrest in the case.

The breaks date back to the summer. Police Chief John LaCross said there have been more than three dozen since July. Three happened early Sunday morning.

In most cases, the robbery follows a pattern. Between 1 and 4 a.m. someone walks up the driveway and peers inside the passenger compartment of a vehicle looking for a handbag, backpack or some other object that might contain money.

If the doors are locked, the robber breaks a window to get inside, often moving so quietly that even dogs don't react.

But in many cases, the vehicles have been left unlocked, even after police have repeatedly warned Barrington residents to lock their cars and remove valuable items.

The robber then swipes the object, dumps the contents on a nearby lawn, only takes cash, and leaves the rest to be found by residents the next morning.

The department's anonymous tip line is 437-3933.

-- Journal staff writer C. Eugene Emery Jr.

Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 2:46 PM | Comment

Oster trial: At Stuffies, real-estate talk and $5,000

PROVIDENCE -- The jury in ex-Lincoln Town Administrator Jonathan F. Oster's trial today heard a recorded meeting at a North Providence restaurant where a businessman, working with authorities, handed an envelope containing $5,000 in state police-supplied cash to Robert R. Picerno, who with Oster allegedly attemped a bribery scheme.

Robert Gelfuso, who was working on a Lincoln playground project on contract, got the money and a recording device from the state police in the parking lot of a liquor store on Dec, 19, 2001, then drove about a half-mile to Stuffies, a then-restaurant in North Providence.

On the tape, Picerno, who since pleaded no contest in 2004 to bribery and conspiracy charges, and Gelfuso commiserate at the restaurant about the real estate business in general and in Lincoln. At conversation's end, Gelfuso passed the envelope bearing the $5,000, the first installment of a $25,000 bribe the state says Picerno and Oster conspired to extract from Gelfuso in exchange for selling the town-controlled H&H Screw Co. property to Gelfuso and his business partner, David Wayne Daniel, for $105,000.

Oster faces two counts of bribery and two counts of conspiracy involving alleged bribes he and Picerno are said to have sought from potential buyers of the H&H Screw Co. land, as it's known, which is about six acres on Route 116 in Lincoln. Oster does not face charges with regards to the handling of the contract to renovate Fairlawn Playground, but Judge Gilbert V. Indeglia ruled the state could use it to try to demonstrate a behaviorial pattern by Picerno and Oster.

Read about Friday's testimony in the case.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with reports from Journal staff writer John Hill

Posted by Mike McKinney at 1:34 PM | Comment

Kennedy announces $6.9 million for VA hospital

U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy visited the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Providence this morning and announced that $6.9 million in federal money had been approved for a new addition and operating room there.

The money is part of an appropriations bill signed into law in December. It will be used to replace three operating suites now on the top floor of the 60-year-old building, said medical center spokesman James W. Burrows.

The operating rooms will be housed in a new two-floor addition to the front of the building, explained Burrows, with the operating areas on the second floor and new administration offices on the first floor.

Burrows said construction will hopefully begin in September and be completed within a year.

Said Kennedy: ``These projects are an important part of our plan to ensure the long-term future of the Providence VA as a national leader in serving America’s veterans.’’

-- Journal staff writer Tom Mooney

Posted by Mike McKinney at 1:12 PM | Comment

Judge to rule tomorrow on smoke-shop case dismissal

PROVIDENCE — Superior Court Judge Susan E. McGuirl will rule tomorrow on whether to dismiss the cases against the seven Narragansett Indians charged in the 2003 state police raid on a tribal smoke shop.

In hearing arguments this morning, McGuirl barraged Special Assistant Attorney General Pamela Chin with questions about why the state was late in turning over evidence to defense lawyers and in some case did not turn over information until being subpoenaed by the court.

Defense lawyers have asked that the cases be dismissed because they say the state has been “grossly negligent” in complying with pre-trial discovery rules that require the state to turn over any evidence that could be used to exonerate a defendant.

“I would submit it’s almost a cavalier attitude in the state’s response to discovery,” said William P. Devereaux, who represents six of the seven tribal members. He asked that if the court does not dismiss the cases, that it make the state pay court costs or impose not guilty filings for each of the defendants.

Chin defended her actions, explaining she had asked state police to disclose relevant material and that she too was not aware of some of the hundreds of pages of documents turned over by state police in the past several weeks until they were subpoenaed.

“In this case, it wasn’t an intentional nondisclosure,” Chin said.

-- Journal staff writer Katie Mulvaney

Still, McGuirl, a former prosecutor herself, had strong words for the prosecution team.

“There are things a prosecutor has to do,” McGuirl said. “You have a duty to do more than prosecute a case. You have a duty to do justice.”

State police executed a search warrant the recently-opened smoke shop on tribal land in Charlestown, at the governor’s order, on July 14, 2003, to stop the tribe from selling tax-free cigarettes. The raid disintegrated into a scuffling match. Seven tribal members, including Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas, are awaiting trial for misdemeanor charges related to the raid.

The trial is set to start Feb. 25, if it proceeds.

Extra: Look back at the raid, including videos and photos, and its aftermath.

Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 1:11 PM | Comment

Langevin announces national health-care plan

CRANSTON -- U.S Rep. Jim Langevin this morning announced legislation to provide health coverage for all Americans through a system modeled after the program that provides health benefits to federal employees.

Declaring his plan the first bipartisan health-care proposal in the U.S. House of Representatives, Langevin was joined by his co-sponsor, Rep. Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican, at the Comprehensive Community Action Program in Cranston.

Langevin’s and Shays’ plan calls for creating a new federal agency that will negotiate with private health insurers to provide a range of health-insurance options, just as the federal Office of Personnel Management now negotiates for the plans in the Federal Employee Benefits Program. Any individual will be eligible to participate. Significantly, individuals will be required to buy health insurance if they don’t already have coverage through federal programs or an employer-sponsored health plan that meets certain standards.

Employers will have a choice of continuing to offer health coverage for their employees or paying into the federal system, to be called the American Health Benefit Program.

With money from a payroll tax, the government will pay 72 percent of the premiums, and individuals will pay the rest – with subsidies available for the poor.

Langevin said his proposal is “based on a tried and true program…that has withstood the test of time.” Because of the federal government’s negotiating powers, the premiums in the federal employees’ plan went up an average of only 1.8 percent this year, he said.

“The reality is,” Langevin said of health-care reform, “we can’t wait another day. … I truly believe the time has come.”

-- Journal staff writer Felice Freyer

Posted by Jack Perry at 1:08 PM | Comment

Bradford Soap union approves contract

Journal archive photo / Kathy Borchers
Soap fragments go through a dryer inside Bradford's West Warwick plant in 2005.

WEST WARWICK -- Employees at Bradford Soap Works, who are represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 251, have accepted a new five-year contract, according to the company.

The current contract was due to expire in 15 months. Employees approved the new agreement yesterday.

The deal is a positive development for a company that has previously threatened to leave the state. In 2004, Bradford Soap announced plans to close its West Warwick plant and move 250 jobs to facilities in Indiana and Ohio, citing high labor costs. But Governor Carcieri and the state Economic Development Corporation intervened, brokering a new contract agreement between the company and its employees.

Bradford Chairman John Howland celebrated the contract vote. "A win for Bradford is a win for Bradford employees and a win for the state of Rhode Island," he said in a statement.

"The actions and decisions made in 2004, however necessary, ushered in a long period of
rebuilding for Bradford," Howland said. "We have had to rationalize our manufacturing operations nationally and internationally, and entirely rebuild our relationship with our staff and employees at all levels."

Bradford Soap, established in Rhode Island in 1876, calls itself the world's largest manufacturer of specialty soaps. It operates the Valley Queen Mill in West Warwick, an historic stone structure built in 1889 along the Pawtuxet River.

Posted by Benjamin N. Gedan at 1:02 PM | Comment

Verrecchia stepping down as Hasbro CEO

Alfred J. Verrecchia said this morning he will step down in May from his post as chief executive officer of Hasbro Inc., the Pawtucket-based toymaker.

Verrecchia will become Hasbro's chairman and be succeeded by Brian Goldner, Hasbro's chief operating officer. Alan G. Hassenfeld, currently Hasbro's non-executive chairman, will remain on the company's board of directors, as head of its executive committee.

Verrecchia, who turns 65 next week, has been with Hasbro for more than 40 years, one year less than G.I. Joe, the iconic action figure that became the company's first big hit.

Verrecchia told The Journal his approach always has been that "as long as I'm having a lot of fun and things are going well [then] I'm going to keep going at it. [But] I think the time is right."

Verrecchia became chief executive officer in 2003, when Hassenfeld, a member of the company's founding family, relinquished the role. Verrecchia assumed the day-to-day responsibilities of running the nation's number-two toymaker and helped guide it through a turnaround centered on reinvigorating its classic toys and games and adapt the company's lineup to the increasing influence of electronics.

A highlight came last year as the company generated more than a $1 billion in revenue from a movie and new toys based on its Transformers line.

Verrecchia announced the change during a quarterly video conference he holds with employees, he said.

"The moving standing ovation that the employees gave him says it all," said Wayne S. Charness, Hasbro's senior vice president for corporate communications. "He is respected and admired for being the great leader that he is."

Goldner, 43, was promoted to chief operating officer in 2006 as part of the succession plan that saw Hassenfeld become non-executive chairman.

-- Paul Grimaldi

Posted by Jack Perry at 12:58 PM | Comment

140 acres of Jamestown farmland preserved for $9.3M

Journal photo/ Mary Murphy
Joe Dutra, left, and Martha and George Neale with their daughters Chandler, 14, and Hadley, 17, stand on the Neale's farm with the Newport Bridge in the background.

JAMESTOWN - With the Pell Bridge and a frozen expanse of fields serving as a picturesque background, a coalition of federal, state and local conservationists gathered here this morning to celebrate the successful campaign to preserve the Dutra and Neal farms.

Purchasing the development rights to the two farms cost $9.3 million.

The 140 acres saved out of the two farms are part of nearly 1,000 acres in the middle of the island that have been preserved during the last 20 years. The expanse, seen by every tourist enroute to Newport, also includes the Watkins Farm and the town-owned golf course.

“These farms go back hundreds of years, so we are recognizing good things here,” U.S. Sen. Jack Reed said to the shivering crowd. The Rhode Island Democrat also praised the Rhody Fresh cooperative that markets locally produced milk and helps support local farmers.

The town contributed $2.1-million -- $500,000 in town coffers and a $1.6-million bond issue that will be paid back over 20 years.

The other sources of money include $3.5 million from the federal Farm and Ranchlands Protection Program, $800,000 from the Rhode Island Agricultural Land Preservation Commission, $750,000 from the Champlin Foundation and $2.1 million from the Conanicut Island Land Trust, according to figures from the town.

Read the deeds and management plans online on the Jamestown Web site.

-- Journal environment writer Peter B. Lord

Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 12:12 PM | Comment

Brown poll finds Clinton leads Obama, McCain in R.I.

Sen. Hillary Clinton holds an 8-point lead over Sen. Barack Obama among likely Rhode Island Democratic presidential primary voters, a Brown University poll released this morning found, as the state gears up for what looks like an increasingly vital March 4 primary.

Those results were based on a survey of 474 voters who indicated they were "very likely to participate" in the Democratic primary. It has a margin of error of about plus or minus five percentage points.

If the primary were today, 36 percent of the voters said they would likely vote for Clinton compared to 28 percent for Obama. Twenty-seven percent said they would vote the "uncommitted" line on the ballot, while 9 percent said they were undecided.

That puts Obama up from where a September poll had him. At that time, 35 percent of likely voters indicated support for Clinton and 16 percent for Obama.

John Edwards, Joseph Biden, Bill Richardson, Christopher Dodd, and Dennis Kucinick were still in the Democratic primary race at that time, and each received single-digit support in that poll; they are not in the new poll.

The overall poll was based on 739 registered voters in Rhode Island and had a margin of error of about plus or minus 4 percentage points. It was conducted done Feb. 9-10 by Darrell M. West, director of Brown University's Taubman Center for Public Policy and the John Hazen White Sr. Public Opinion Laboratory.

If the presidential election were today, the poll found that voters would support Clinton over Republican John McCain by 43 percent to 32 percent -- a decrease from the 55 percent to 26 percent margin in the September poll for that matchup.

Were it Obama vs. McCain, the new poll found 42 percent supporting the Democrat and 30 percent for McCain.

Meanwhile, President Bush's approval rating sank still lower in Rhode Island, with 14 percent saying they believe he's doing a good job compared 16 percent in the September poll.

Extra: Read the press release on the poll's findings.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney at 12:03 PM | Comment

Wind advisory in effect until 3 p.m.

So is this the worst wind we’ve had in years, or what?

The short answer is no.

Still, it's uncomfortable. As of 11 a.m., the temperature in Providence had reached 18 degrees, but wind from the northwest gusting to 31 mph. made it feel like three degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

“It’s February 11, in New England. It’s winter … so this isn’t that unusual,” said Alan Dunham, at the National Weather Service in Taunton, Mass.

It may be a little unexpected, though, after the mild temperatures we were having up through yesterday morning.

“It got up yesterday morning, in some spots, into the 40s,” Dunham said. “So for an arctic front to come through, it’s sort of a shock to the system. But,” he reiterated, “it’s not that unusual.”

And it’s not expected to last.

A wind advisory for gusts up to 50 mph. remains in effect until 3 p.m.

Winds are expected to calm down this afternoon as high pressure builds in the region.

The temperature tonight should drop to 12 degrees before the temperature climbs to 31 degrees with a chance of snow tomorrow and the low 40s with rain Wednesday.

Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 11:10 AM | Comment

Stock in A.H. Belo starts trading

A.H. Belo Corp., the newspaper company spun off from Dallas-based Belo Corp., began trading this morning under the ticker symbol AHC on the New York Stock Exchange.
Shares traded after the opening bell at 9:30 a.m. at $16.35.

A..H. Belo Corp., based in Dallas, owns The Dallas Morning News, The Providence Journal, The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, Calif., and the Denton (Texas) Record-Chronicle, plus the newspapers’ Web sites. The company also owns certain niche products and direct mail and commercial printing businesses.

Belo Corp. completed the spin off last week by distributing one share of A.H. Belo for every five shares of Belo Corp. that shareholders owned on Jan. 25. For example, an owner of 100 shares of Belo Corp. received 20 shares of A.H. Belo.

Belo Corp. continues to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol BLC. Shares in Belo Corp. opened this morning at 9:30 at $13.45. Belo Corp. owns 20 television stations.

-- John Kostrzewa

Posted by Jack Perry at 10:49 AM | Comment

Cicilline prepares for State of the City address

What's the state of the city?

Mayor David N. Cicilline is preparing to give his take on that question tomorrow at his annual State of the City address.

Cicilline says he'll outline a plan for "protecting Providence's momentum in the wake of a state budget crisis," and what he has said could potentially become a local budget crisis.

The speech is set for 7 p.m. at the Rhode Island Convention Center, on the 5th floor in the rotunda.

Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 10:25 AM | Comment

Gas prices fall below $3 per gallon

Gasoline prices in Rhode Island dropped another five cents to fall below $3.00 per gallon for the first time since early November, according to AAA Southern New England.

The average price for a gallon of regular, unleaded gasoline is $2.989 per gallon at the self-service pump, according to AAA's weekly survey.

The average price has dropped for the past five weeks, but Rhode Islanders are still paying 81 cents more per gallon thean they were at this time last year.

Rhode Islanders are also paying about three cents more than the national average of $2.959.

Posted by Jack Perry at 10:14 AM | Comment

Alleged bank robber in court today

A 56-year-old man is scheduled for arraignment today for allegedly being half of a bank robbing duo.

The police say Dennis Evans charged into a Cranston branch of Rhode Island Bank last July with Christopher Thibodeau.

The robbers wielded a handgun and a blunt object, jumped the counter, according to Cranston police, and made off with "a substantial amount of money."

Evans and Thibodeau were arrested when officers from Cranston, Johnston, Coventry and the Rhode Island State Police surrounded a wooded area where the robbers were seen to have fled.

Evans faces several charges; first-degree robbery, conspiracy and larceny of an automobile over $500 in U.S. District Court, Providence.

Thibodeau faces felony charges of first-degree robbery, conspiracy and driving a vehicle without consent of the owner.

Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 9:53 AM | Comment

Hasbro boosts profits, revenues

Sales of Transformer action figures and purchases by consumers in foreign countries helped boost Hasbro's fourth quarter profits by 24 percent.

Net income rose to $133.7 million, or 84 cents a share, from $108.3 million, or 62 cents a share, in the year earlier period.

Sales increased 16 percent to $1.3 billion, the Pawtucket-based toymaker said. International sales climbed 29 percent to $489.2 million in the quarter. North American revenue rose 7.6 percent to $766.8 million.
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Hasbro's profits and sales exceeded forecasts by Wall Street analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. The surveys estimated Hasbro would post average profit of 81 cents a share and average sales of $1.22 billion.

Shares of Hasbro (HAS:NYSE) closed Friday at $25.87 and are up 1.1 percent in 2008.

-- John Kostrzewa

Posted by Jack Perry at 8:33 AM | Comment

Photo: Fighting the cold

Journal photo/ Bill Murphy
A woman battles the cold as she waits for a bus in Kennedy Plaza in Downtown Providence this morning. The temperature in Providence this morning is 10 degrees and the strong wind makes it feel like 8 degrees below zero.

Posted by Jack Perry at 8:18 AM | Comment

Langevin, Conn. Rep. to announce health care plan

A Rhode Island Democrat and a Connecticut Republican are set to announce a universal health care plan today in Cranston.

U.S. Rep. James Langevin, of Rhode Island, and U.S. Rep. Christopher Shays, of Connecticut, are announcing the plan today.

Langevin will speak at at the Comprehensive Community Action Program Family Health Center in Cranston. Shay will make an announcement later at a Connecticut hospital.

The congressmen say three principals – choice, shared responsibility, and affordability – are required for a successful health program.

The American Health Benefits Program, Langevin and Shays say, is modeled after the federal Employees Health Benefits Program.

“My vision is that all Americans will one day have access to the same level of care as members of Congress,” Langevin said in a statement.

The announcement is set for 10 a.m. at the Health Center, 1090 Cranston St.

Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 7:02 AM | Comment

Freezing would be nice -- it's cold out there

And all of a sudden, it's winter again.

Not a pretty winter-wonderland kind of winter, either. It's freezing; actually, below freezing, with the National Weather Service forecasting a high temperature of 27 degrees. That would be cold enough, but with the wind chill factored in, it will feel closer to -4 degrees. And the wind is no joke today, it's coming from the west between 18 and 22 mph, and gusting as high as 43 mph.

Needless to say, tonight will be pretty rough, with temperatures dropping to 15 degrees and wind gusts as high as 31 mph.

Tomorrow looks like more of the same with the addition of clouds and possible snow in the late afternoon. Temperatures should reach the high 20s, and we'll have milder, south winds.

For weather updates throughout the day, visit projo.com's weather page.

Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 7:01 AM | Comment

Today's front page

Today's front page features a story about a United Way-sponsored hotline that helps people in need, fielding 100,000 calls in its first seven months.

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

Posted by Jack Perry at 7:00 AM | Comment