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« February 20, 2008 | Today | February 22, 2008 » February 21, 2008Tonight: In sync on ice at the Dunk / Photo
PROVIDENCE -- You can still catch the U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships tonight at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence. Today's events go until 9 p.m. The championships run from today through Saturday. Ticket prices for today and tomorrow are: regular admission, $23.50, while the fee is $17.50 for people age 65 or older, children under age 6 and active military personnel. For more on the skating championships, including a gallery of photos, visit projo.com tomorrow. Posted by Mike McKinney at 6:57 PM | Comment Hillary Clinton will appear at RIC this SundayDetails of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's visit to Rhode Island this Sunday were announced this evening. She will appear at a 1:30 p.m. "Solutions for America" rally at Rhode Island College's recreation center in Providence, her campaign said. Doors open at 11:30 a.m., and the program starts at 1:30 p.m. Clinton will also attend at least one more public event in Rhode Island on Sunday to be announced later, the campaign news release said. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, is slated to visit Rhode Island on Feb. 28. Yesterday, Michelle Obama, wife of Clinton's competitor for the Democratic nomination, Barack Obama, visited Rhode Island, speaking in Providence and at Community College of Rhode Island in Warwick. -- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney Posted by Mike McKinney at 6:48 PM | Comment Democratic Party elder Pells split on presidential votesThe presidential primary campaign between New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and lllinois Sen. Barack Obama has split some Rhode Island Democratic households, including one of the most revered of party elders, the Pells of Newport. Former U.S. Sen. Claiborne Pell, who was first elected to that post in 1960, is someone so well-liked by Rhode Island voters that he never lost an election, even defeating the late John H. Chafee, a former Rhode Island governor and later senator, in a 1972 race. Pell retired from the Senate in 1996. Claiborne Pell, 89, has been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for years and no longer speaks in public. But his wife, Nuala Pell, is a spry 84 and often attends political events, most recently yesterday’s speech at the Providence Biltmore by Michelle Obama. Mrs. Pell is a member of Rhode Island Women for Obama and is voting for the Illinois senator. Mrs. Pell said today that her husband has voted by shut-in ballot for Clinton. "He can’t get to the polls,’’ she said. "But he worked with [former President] Bill Clinton and he really likes Hillary Clinton.’’ Mrs. Pell said she is a bit more focused on the future and believes Obama would make a good president for the 21st century. -- Journal staff writer Scott MacKay Posted by Andrea Panciera at 6:35 PM | Comment Police: Girl, 7, accidentally hangs self at Warwick homeWARWICK -- A 7-year-old girl apparently hanged herself to death while playing with a ribbon in a bedroom of her family’s Crestwood Road home on Wednesday, police officials said today. Police Chief Col. Steven McCartney said that police and fire rushed to the house at about 1:40 in the afternoon after receiving frantic phone calls from family members who were apparently trying to revive the girl. He declined to name the girl, who he said was found in an upstairs bedroom by her 5-year-old brother. Firefighters were already trying to resuscitate her when police arrived at the home at 205 Crestwood Road, McCartney said, describing a scene of “great trauma and anxiety.” The girl was transported to Hasbro Children’s Hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival, he said. According to McCartney, the mother was so distraught that she also had to be taken to the hospital by rescue, and there were initial reports that the father, who was still inside the house, may have suffered a heart attack. Police are conducting a full investigation, he said, but are treating the death as accidental at this time. He said initial reports from the medical examiner’s office indicate that the girl died from self-inflicted strangulation. -- Journal staff writer Barbara Polichetti McCartney identified the parents as Christie Robinson, 28, and Frank Cannon, 39. There are believed to be six children in the household, ranging in ages from 2 to 13, McCartney said. Because of the unusual circumstances of the death plus the fact that the adults were so distraught, McCartney said that the state Department of Children Youth and Families was called in and initially took custody of the children. He said he did not know that status of that department’s involvement as of today. Posted by Mike McKinney at 6:19 PM | Comment Photo: Now that's a vanity plate
Posted by Andrea Panciera at 5:42 PM | Comment Update: Martineau seeks leniency in corruption sentencePROVIDENCE -- Former House Majority Leader Gerard Martineau has asked a judge for leniency ahead of his scheduled sentencing hearing tomorrow on federal corruption charges. Lawyers for Martineau have filed court papers asking for a sentence below the federal guideline range, which recommends a prison term of between 37 to 46 months. Martineau pleaded guilty in November to two counts of federal mail fraud. He will be sentenced on Friday by U.S. District Judge Mary Lisi. Martineau earned roughly $900,000 in business from the CVS pharmacy chain and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island. Prosecutors said Martineau arranged to sell paper and plastic bags to the companies for use in their businesses at the same time he promoted their legislative interests at the State House. In a sentencing memorandum, defense lawyers argue that Martineau's business relationship with CVS started several years before he was elected to the General Assembly and therefore had nothing to do with his political clout. They say Martineau, a Woonsocket Democrat, has accepted responsibility for his actions, and that his bad judgments do not reflect his upbringing or overall values. He was charged as part of a federal investigation into State House corruption, dubbed Operation Dollar Bill, that prosecutors say involves both politicians and corporations. Martineau's sentencing is slated for 9:30 a.m. in U.S. District Court, Providence, before Judge Mary M. Lisi. -- The Associated Press Posted by Mike McKinney at 4:36 PM | Comment Kerry copter makes emergency landing in AfghanistanWASHINGTON -- Helicopters carrying three senior U.S. senators -- including John Kerry of Massachusetts -- made emergency landings today in the mountains of Afghanistan because of a snowstorm. Sens. Kerry, Joseph Biden and Chuck Hagel were aboard the aircraft. No one was injured, according a statement from Kerry’s office. The senators and their delegation returned to Bagram Air Base in a motor convoy, and have left for Turkey. “After several hours, the senators were evacuated by American troops and returned overland to Bagram Air Base, and left for their next scheduled stop in Ankara, Turkey,” the Kerry statement said. “Senator Kerry thanks the American troops, who were terrific as always and who continue to do an incredible job in Afghanistan.” The lawmakers were on a trip this week that included stops in India, Turkey and Pakistan, where they observed the elections earlier this week. Kerry and Biden are Democrats from Massachusetts and Delaware, respectively, and the Republican Hagel is from Nebraska. -- The Associated Press Posted by Mike McKinney at 4:27 PM | Comment Update: Oster found guilty of bribery, conspiracyPROVIDENCE -- A jury today found ex-Lincoln Town Administrator Jonathan F. Oster guilty on all bribery and conspiracy counts stemming from attempts by Oster and a then-political ally to extort bribes from potential buyers of a nearly six-acre, town-controlled property on Route 116. Oster, who was town administrator from 2000 to 2002 when the plot played out, was found guilty on two counts of bribery and two counts of conspiracy in Providence County Superior Court after less than two full days of deliberations. The state's case held that Oster’s role was to get the town to sell the land for $105,000 in exchange for $25,000 cash payoffs, working, the state contended, with Robert R. Picerno, a former Lincoln Planning Board member and Oster ally, to shake down different potential land buyers. Picerno pleaded no contest in 2004 to four counts of taking or trying to solicit bribes, and three counts of conspiracy to solicit bribes. As he had through most of the trial, Oster sat stoically at the defense table, his head shaking only slightly, as the verdict on the first count was read. His wife’s eyes were red and the group of friends who had sat through the trial hugged and whispered to each other after the jury left the room. Oster's sentencing is set for May 8. After the verdict, Oster’s lawyer, C. Leonard O’Brien, said Oster would appeal. -- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with reports from Journal staff writer John Hill and Journal archival reports "An unfortunate chapter in the town of Lincoln's proud history," current Lincoln Town Administrator T. Joseph Almond said in a statement today. He added that "these disgraceful but brief actions were quickly halted by the efforts of the Rhode Island State Police with the cooperation from members of the Lincoln Police Department. "We can now place this unfortunate incident behind us and move forward, ensuring both residents and business owners in the town of Lincoln that all of their elected officials are working honestly, openly and in the best interest of the community to enhance the longstanding integrity of their government." Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch said in a statement that Lincoln and Rhode residents deserved "faithful, true and honest" service from public officials. "What they got from Oster, however, was pure greed and corruption -- conduct so glaring and objectionable that a jury unanimously found it to be criminal. Thanks to outstanding police work from and cooperation with the Rhode Island State Police, and the sheer persistence of our current prosecutors, Assistant Attorneys General Bethany Macktaz and Bill Ferland, as well as the many people in our office who assisted them along the way, we have secured a very important victory against public corruption today." In closing arguments Tuesday, prosecutor Bethany Macktaz in part focused on a meeting in which Picerno went to Oster’s law office wearing state police transmitters. A state trooper was outside videotaping. Picerno had met over several weeks with contractors David Wayne Daniel and Robert Gelfuso, who were working with the state police, to get them to pay the $25,000 bribe in exchange for getting the town to sell them the H&H Screw Co. property, on Route 116, for $105,000. Picerno had an envelope filled with $10,000 when he went to Oster’s office -- money Picerno was to say was from Daniel. On video, Oster and Picerno are standing outside and Picerno puts the envelope in a metal mailbox, saying, “All right, that’s from Wayne, for that H&H [expletive].” A police search later that day found the cash-containing envelope in Oster's office, according to testimony. “There’s the proof,” Macktaz said in closing arguments. “The hard, direct evidence to convict this man.” Before the attempt to extort money from Gelfuso and Daniel, Robert R. Campellone, whose car dealership was down Route 116 from the land, was Picerno’s first bribery target for the H&H land, according to testimony. Campellone, who faced his own bribery charges in the state police investigation, testified earlier in the trial that Picerno lied to him about the deal's terms -- and Campellone said he backed out and sought his $25,000 back. Picerno wanted the bribes from Daniel and Gelfuso to pay back Campellone. Daniel testified Picerno had him make out the $15,000 “legal fees” check to Campellone, whom he didn’t know. Before the trial started, O’Brien had objected to a decision Judge Gilbert V. Indeglia made to allow the state to introduce other persons’ bad acts, particularly those of Picerno, into evidence. Oster was not charged with any crimes related to those actions, was never present when those acts took place, O’Brien said, adding the state could not prove he knew of them. “Jon has options,” O’Brien said after the verdicit, “and one of the most important is to appeal this ruling.” The conspiracy charges were a particular challenge for Oster. Under state law, if the prosecution can prove a conspiracy existed between the two men, Oster’s legal exposure was huge because a criminal conspiracy is in itself is a crime. The state ddin’t have to prove a bribe was ever paid, only that Picerno and Oster schemed to get it. All members of a conspiracy are culpable for the acts of other conspirators whether they knew what they were doing or not, Indeglia said. One conspirator could even order another not to commit a specific crime, but if the other did it anyway, both are equally liable. Or, as Macktaz put it during trial, “Mr. Oster is criminally responsible for all of Mr. Picerno’s actions, even if he wasn’t there.” O’Brien argued during trial that Picerno was an extortionist who was doing whatever he could to get the state police to give him a break less than two days following his arrest. The defense also used testimony to argue that the land Oster was accused of selling at a too-low value might actually have so much industrial contamination as to have a negative value, so that any offer for it a good one. And O’Brien established that the car dealer had done favors for Picerno for at least a year prior to Osters' taking office. O'Brien also got Campellone to say he had never talked to Oster about bribes he paid Picerno. Read about the case's closing arguments. Posted by Mike McKinney at 4:05 PM | Comment Double stabbing in ProvidenceRescue crews are on the scene at a stabbing in the city's Elmwood neighborhood. Two people were transported to local hospitals at about 2:30 from 153 Stanwood Street with stab wounds, according to James Taylor, chief of communications for the Providence Fire Department. One of the victims was a 30-year-old man with wounds to the forehead. Taylor did not yet have information on the second victim. -- projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 2:53 PM | Comment Hasbro pulls countries from Monopoly site after Israel flapPROVIDENCE -- An employee of Hasbro Inc. eliminated the word "Israel" after the city of Jerusalem in an online contest to select names for a new Monopoly board game after complaints from pro-Palestinian groups and bloggers who believe the city is not in Israel, the company said today. A day after "Israel" was removed, the Pawtucket-based company apologized and pulled all country names from cities listed on the site. Hasbro is asking people to vote at the Monopoly Web site on which cities will be included in its upcoming Monopoly Here and Now: The World Edition. Until Tuesday, every city on the site listed a country, including Paris, France; Cairo, Egypt and Jerusalem, Israel. But a "mid-level" employee, based in London, decided on her own without consulting senior management to pull "Israel" from Jerusalem after hearing the complaints, Hasbro spokesman Wayne Charness said today. Israel considers the whole of Jerusalem to be its capital, while Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state. The change left Jerusalem as the only one of dozens of cities listed without a country. Hasbro management was alerted to the change Wednesday when its London office saw a spike in traffic on the site and figured out what happened, Charness said. The company then pulled every country name, so Paris and Cairo also are now listed alone, he said. "It was a bad decision, one that we rectified relatively quickly," he said. "This is a game. We never wanted to enter into any political debate. We apologize to our Monopoly fans." -- The Associated Press Charness added that the game, due out in the fall, was never meant to include countries. The countries were added to the Web site to make it easier to vote. "Monopoly is the world's most popular game," he said. "We want it to remain that way." Voting in the contest ends Feb. 29 for the Top 20 cities and March 9 for two wild card cities nominated by voters. The top vote-getting city will get the prime Boardwalk spot: as of Tuesday, it was Istanbul, Turkey. Posted by Jack Perry at 2:53 PM | Comment Update: Oster found guilty of bribery, conspiracyPROVIDENCE -- A jury today found ex-Lincoln Town Administrator Jonathan F. Oster guilty on all bribery and conspiracy counts after Oster and a then-political ally twice attempted to extort bribes from potential buyers of a nearly six-acre, town-controlled property on Route 116. Oster, who was town administrator from 2000 to 2002 when the plot played out, was found guilty on two counts of bribery and two counts of conspiracy in Providence County Superior Court after less than two full days' deliberations. The state's case held that Oster’s role was to get the town to sell the land for $105,000 in exchange for $25,000 cash payoffs, working, the state contended, with Robert R. Picerno, a former Lincoln Planning Board member and Oster ally, to shake down the different potential land buyers. Picerno pleaded no contest in 2004 to four counts of taking or trying to solicit bribes, and three counts of conspiracy to solicit bribes. In closing arguments Tuesday, prosecutor Bethany Macktaz in part cited a Feb. 16, 2002, meeting that Picerno went to at Oster’s law office wearing state police transmitters. A state trooper was outside videotaping. Picerno had met over several weeks with contractors David Wayne Daniel and Robert Gelfuso, who were working with the state police, to get them to pay the $25,000 bribe in exchange for getting the town to sell them the H&H Screw Co. property, on Route 116, for $105,000. Picerno had an envelope filled with $10,000 when he went to Oster’s office -- money Picerno was to say was from Daniel. On video, Oster and Picerno are standing outside and Picerno puts the envelope in a metal mailbox, saying, “All right, that’s from Wayne, for that H&H [expletive].” A police search later that day found the cash-containing envelope in Oster's office, according to testimony. “There’s the proof,” Macktaz said in closing arguments. “The hard, direct evidence to convict this man.” Before the attempt to extort money from Gelfuso and Daniel, Robert R. Campellone, whose car dealership was down Route 116 from the land, was Picerno’s first bribery target for the H&H land, according to testimony. Campellone testified earlier in the trial that Picerno lied to him about the deal's terms -- and Campellone said he backed out and sought his $25,000 back. Picerno wanted the bribes from Daniel and Gelfuso to pay back Campellone. Daniel testified Picerno had him make out the $15,000 “legal fees” check to Campellone, whom he didn’t know. Oster's defense lawyer, C. Leonard O’Brien, argued that Picerno was an extortionist who was doing whatever he could to get the state police to give him a break less than two days following his arrest. The defense also used testimony to argue that the land Oster was accused of selling at a too-low value might actually have so much industrial contamination as to have a negative value, so that any offer for it a good one. And O’Brien established that the car dealer had done favors for Picerno for at least a year prior to Osters' taking office. O'Brien also got Campellone to say he had never talked to Oster about bribes he paid Picerno. Read about the case's closing arguments. -- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with reports from Journal staff writer John Hill and Journal archival reports Posted by Mike McKinney at 1:52 PM | Comment Update: 'Missing' students found: 1 in jail, 1 at home
Amy Scott and Daniel Querzoli
Police now know the whereabouts of two college students who didn’t return home after borrowing a friend’s car to run errands last week. Twenty-two-year-old Daniel Querzoli is in state police custody in Pennsylvania, and 21-year-old Amy Scott is in New Jersey with her mother, Laura Tool. Tool said her daughter and her daughter’s roommates were all in danger, but would not elaborate to police. The car Scott allegedly left Providence in -- her roommate's Honda, which has been reported stolen -- was found in a parking garage in mid-town Manhattan. Querzoli, a student at Bridgewater State University, was arrested in what Pennsylvania state police say was a different stolen vehicle with stolen plates. Providence Police Det. Sgt. Carl W. Weston Jr. said he had an unusual series of conversations with Tool, who reported her daughter missing last week. --projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson, with reports from journal staff writer Gregory Smith Tool said her daughter had been in touch and that she and her husband were going to pick up Scott, Weston said. But, he added, she was not forthcoming in answering all of his questions. At one point, Weston said, Tool remarked that Scott said she and her roommates were in danger. Tool said police should send an officer to the apartment, but would not tell Weston the nature of the danger. Out of an abundance of caution, police sent an officer to the house yesterday to check on the eight residents of the multi-family house. No one was home, Weston said. A police sergeant in Beach Haven, N.J., went to Tool’s house and confirmed that Scott was OK. But the sergeant did not get much more information, Weston said, because the two women had a lawyer with them. Tool did say that her daughter and Querzoli were no longer dating. Querzoli was arrested at about 3:15 a.m. today when a state police trooper reported seeing a vehicle being driven erratically on Interstate 81 in Cumberland, just outside of Carlisle, Penn. According to Sgt. Jonathan Mays, Querzoli was driving a stolen Buick Century with stolen plates. Querzoli is currently being held on $50,000 bail while he awaits his hearing. On cable television last night, Querzoli's father, Brian Warren, said he had received a postcard from his son that said the two college students were on a “road trip.” Weston said the case reminds him of the runaway bride. Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 1:49 PM | Comment Martineau, former majority leader, faces sentencingPROVIDENCE -- Former House Majority Leader Gerard M. Martineau is scheduled for sentencing tomorrow on corruption charges. Martineau pleaded guilty in November to corruption charges for steering legislation to benefit businesses with which he had plastic and paper bag contracts. Martineau's sentencing is slated for 9:30 a.m. in U.S. District Court, Providence, before Judge Mary M. Lisi, according to an advisory from U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente's office. Martineau, who was a longtime state representative from Woonsocket, pleaded guilty to two felony charges of depriving Rhode Islanders of the right to his honest services for $891,500 worth of paper and plastic bag contracts from the CVS drugstore chain and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island. Martineau then tried to influence health-care and other legislation for the two companies. -- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with Journal archival reports Posted by Mike McKinney at 12:59 PM | Comment Life without parole upheld for man who killed his wifePROVIDENCE -- The state Supreme Court today upheld a historic sentence of life in prison without parole for a domestic violence case in which a Narragansett man stabbed his wife to death in 1996. The high court's ruling was also the first time that court had considered and upheld such a sentence. In writing the decision for the court, Chief Justice Frank J. Williams described it as a "heinous and horrific case" and "execution-style killing." According to the court, Joseph E. McManus Jr. capped years of abusing Kelly McGinity McManus by stabbing her six times with an 11-inch knife in their Bonnet Shores home. McManus -- who while in prison for that crime received another 20-year sentence in 2001 after offering to pay an inmate to shoot then-Attorney General Jeffrey B. Pine and to break a state prosecutor's legs -- did not dispute in 1996 that he fatally stabbed his wife in her home. He gave a "diminished-capacity" defense at the eight-day trial. But a jury convicted McManus, then of 6 King Phillip Rd., Narragansett, of one count of first-degree murder. His life sentence without possibility of parole was the first such issued in a Rhode Island domestic-violence case. -- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with Journal archival reports The couple, who'd been together about 20 years and married for four, had three children. According to the state Supreme Court decision out today, the couple argued often and McManus at times assaulted his wife. The fighting got worse, largely because McManus believed his wife was having an affair with a player on his softball team. Starting in March 1996, Kelly McManus relied on friends' protection from her husband's abuse. On June 28, 1996, Joseph McManus packed belongings in a laundry basket and left the home following an argument. In the evening, after some drinks at several local taverns, McManus told a softball teammate, "If I can't have her, nobody is going to have her" and "If I can't have her, I will kill her." Two of the children were home the early morning of June 29, 1996, when they heard McManus trying to get in the house, pleading with Kelly McManus to let him in. After he got in, he was heard pleading with her to sit down and talk. Eventually, McManus stabbed his 35-year-old wife with a kitchen knife. He kept stabbing her until their son hit him over the head with a coffee table, according to the high court decision. At his Superior Court sentencing, Judge Judith Savage said: "Everyone is blaming themselves for this tragedy, but the blame, Mr. McManus, lies . . . with you." McManus's appeal to the high court argued there were case errors, contending that he was entitled to a new trial because the state "deliberately failed to provide him with two statements" in the court process known as discovery, the high court decision says. Other arguments were that: The trial court erred in denying his motion to disqualify one of the two prosecutors in the case; McManus should get a new trial because of his lawyers had a conflit of interest with one prosecutor; and the Superior Court erred in denying McManus' request for a mistrial. Also, appellate counsel for McManus argued in a supplemental brief that a life imprisonment was unwarranted in the case. But the state Supreme Court decision states that after reviewing the case record, "we conclude that the trial justice captured perfectly the defendant's bad character and evil propensities. It comes as little surprise that an individual capable of committing such a brutal slaying would be the same individual who inflicted a lifetime of abuse on his wife and children." Justice Francis Flaherty dissented, saying that while "there is no doubt this was a brutal murder for which the defendant was convicted of first-degree murder," he said after reviewing the record he did not conclude the case should be include in a narrow group of cases of the most heinous crimes "for which this most extreme sentence should be reserved." Flaherty states he would reduce the sentence to life imprisonment. Posted by Mike McKinney at 12:38 PM | Comment Traffic Alert: Rollover accident in Cranston cemeteryPolice and rescue crews are on the scene at an accident at a Cranston cemetery. Police Maj. Ronald Blackmar says the rollover accident happened in St. Ann's Cemetery, on Church Street. Two cars were involved in the accident, he said; one broadsided the other, which then rolled over. Two people in the vehicle that rolled were transported to a local hospital with non life-threatening injuries. -- projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson
Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 12:10 PM | Comment Photo: Building extremely fast in Warwick
Posted by Jack Perry at 10:01 AM | Comment Oster jury gets back to businessPROVIDENCE -- The jury in the bribery and conspiracy trial of former Lincoln Town Administrator Jonathan F. Oster has begun the third day of deliberations in Providence County Superior Court. The jurors deliberated until 4 p.m. yesterday without reaching a verdict. Oster, the town administrator from 2000 to 2002, has been on trial for two counts of bribery and two counts of conspiracy to commit bribery in connection with what the state says were two efforts to get bribes from potential buyers of town-controlled land on Route 116 known as the H&H Screw Co. property. The state alleges Oster and former planning board member Robert R. Picerno conspired to sell the land for $105,000, an amount far lower than what the state said it was worth. -- With reports from Journal staff writer John Hill Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 9:58 AM | Comment Providence teen dies in wake of October surgeryA funeral will be held Saturday for a local teenager whose medical plight became a national story. According to published reports, 16-year-old Javona Peters, of Providence, had been in an irreversible coma since having brain surgery at a New York hospital in October. She reportedly had an unexpected reaction to anesthetic. Articles in the New York Daily News, the North Country Gazette and ABC.com say Peters was admitted to Montefiore Medical Center in New York City for what the hospital calls a routine procedure to drain fluid from the head. Peters did not awaken after the Oct. 17 operation. The hospital said it was the result of "an unforeseeable reaction to a routine anesthesia agent." Peters, who was 16, went to Hope High School. She died Feb. 13 in Massachusetts. The funeral service is set for Saturday at 10:30 a.m. in Union Baptist Church, 50 Lupine St. in Pawtucket. Calling hours are from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Read her obituary and sign an online guestbook. Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 9:36 AM | Comment Spring in the middle of winter at the flower show/ Photo
The 15th annual Rhode Island Spring Flower & Garden Show begins today, and the fairy tales theme is bringing scenes from some of the the best-known fairy tales to the Rhode Island Convention Center. It's a foliage festival that will turn Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty and other fables into mid-winter gardens through Sunday. For more information, see the show's Web site. Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 8:38 AM | Comment Photos: Eclipse over East Providence
Posted by Jack Perry at 8:15 AM | Comment Photos: Did you see the eclipse?
A sequence of images taken approximately every twenty minutes show the moon passing through the shadow of the earth as photographed in Toronto Wednesday Feb. 20, 2008. A total lunar eclipse, can only occur on a full moon, when the moon passes through the shadow of the earth. If you missed last night's total lunar eclipse, you've got plenty of time to prepare for the next one -- almost three years. In Rhode Island, the weather was fickle but in Providence. At least, the skies cleared just in time to see the the moon move into the darker part of the earth's shadow, the umbra. At about 10 p.m., the moon moved into position almost directly opposite of the sun on the other side of the earth. The moon's surface turned rust-colored; a result of light bending through the earth's atmosphere and scattering, leaving the longer wavelength red light to hit the moon. In effect, a reflection of all the world's sunsets. The next chance for North America to catch a total lunar eclipse? December 10, 2010. -- projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 7:41 AM | Comment The Omnivore's dilemma: What to eatWe've seen image upon image of sick animals that should have been euthanized instead being turned into food for humans. . And though there’s been no indication that any of the cows from the Hallmark/Westland Meat Co. were carrying illnesses that could be transferred to humans, the U.S. Department of Agriculture Sunday ordered the recall of more than 140 million pounds of beef -- some of which were destined for schools across the country, including in Rhode Island. Just in time comes Michael Pollan, the author who’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, takes a shot at answering the questions “What should we eat? … How did we ever get to a point where we need investigative journalists to tell us where our food comes from and nutritionists to determine the dinner menu." Pollan is set to speak at Brown University’s Salomon Center, on the campus green, today. His talk, "In Defense of Food: The Omnivore's Solution,” is set to begin at 6 p.m. -- projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 7:28 AM | Comment Conn. city considers banning sex offenders from parksBRISTOL, Conn. -- Bristol's city councilors are considering a local law that would ban child sex offenders from certain areas of the city. They would be barred from schools, parks and other public places where young people congregate, which would be designated as child-safety zones. The council's Ordinance Committee is urging the full City Council to adopt a local law next month targeting those who have committed a sex-related crime against a child. The proposed ordinance is similar to one already in place in Danbury. City Councilor Frank Nicastro has proposed the law citing an incident in September when a convicted sex offender allegedly raped a 13-year-old in Brackett Park. -- The Associated Press Posted by Jack Perry at 7:02 AM | Comment It's cold, and snow is on the way tomorrowIts cold, and it's going to stay that way. The National Weather Service is forecasting a clear, sunny day with a high temperature of 32 degrees and a northwest wind between 6 and 11 mph. Tonight the clouds roll in, and the temperature should drop to the mid-teens with a calm west wind. Expect a snow-and-rain mix tomorrow with a high temperature in the low 30s and a calm south wind. Snow accumulation could reach between 1 and 3 inches. To keep an eye on that snow, check projo.com's weather page. Posted by Brandie Jefferson at 7:01 AM | Comment Today's front pageToday's front page features a story and photograph on the visit to Rhode Island by presidential candidate Barack Obama's wife, Michelle. There's also a photograph and story about a family's house in Warwick being torn down and rebuilt, courtesy of the television show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. |
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ProJo 9 to 5 News Blog
Oct 2005 - March 2006