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July 1, 2008

Tonight: Get a jump on July 4, Bristol-style

Before its famous big Fourth of July parade, Bristol has some more offerings this evening.

At Independence Park, 444 Thames St., there’s a free concert by Patrick McAloon that began at 6:30 p.m., and another at 7:45 p.m. by the Pat McGee Band.

There's a carnival on the Commons, off State Street. Ride all rides for $20 from 5 p.m. until closing.

See what else is happening in Bristol this week.

Check out the projo.com's calendar of what's coming up for the Fourth of July celebration around the state.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 7:00 PM | Comment

Photo: A cross of honor for D-Day veteran

Journal photo / Bob Thayer
Former U.S. Army amphibious engineer Leo Heroux, right, of Central Falls, who landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day, was honored by the French with the Croix De Guerre with palm. The medal, sent from France, was presented by Mayor Charles D. Moreau at City Hall in Central Falls today. The Croix de Guerre, or Cross of War, is a French military decoration created to honor people who fought with the Allies against the Axis forces at any time during World War II.
After the presentation, fellow D-Day veteran Wilson Delasanta, left, of Cumberland, shares a laugh with Heroux and two other D-Day vets at a Central Falls coffee shop.

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 6:59 PM | Comment

Colin Powell: No interest in running for vice president

PROVIDENCE -- Former Secretary of State and four-star general Colin Powell said this evening he has no interest in running for vice president should presumptive Republican nominee John McCain ask him, as has been speculated recently in media reports.

“I am not interested in political life, and I am not a candidate for any office,” Powell said at a small news conference.

Nor is he ready to endorse McCain or Democratic presumptive nominee Barack Obama -- but he seemed to leave open the door to an endorsement as the campaign continues.

“Right now, my only responsibility as a citizen is to vote,” Powell said. “What else I might do remains to be seen.”

Powell is in Rhode Island to speak at the Providence Performing Arts Center to a gathering tonight of the 2008 U.S. Scholar-Athlete Games.

“As a citizen,” Powell said, “I am going to judge the two candidates on the basis of their policies and on the basis of the vision that they have for the country and which one I think will do the very best job, which one will bring the competence to government that the American people are looking for -- and especially the economic policies that they might bring as president.”

Powell's keynote speech begins at 7 p.m. and later take questions from the audience. Tickets, on sale at the PPAC box office, are $20 for adults and $15 for students 18 and younger.

-- Journal staff writer G. Wayne Miller

Posted by Mike McKinney at 6:52 PM | Comment

Update: Landmark lead-paint judgment overturned

PROVIDENCE -- The Rhode Island Supreme Court today unanimously reversed a lower court’s verdict in favor of the state in its landmark lawsuit against companies that manufactured and sold lead paint in Rhode Island.

In a 4-0 decision, the court reversed a Superior Court jury's decision calling for Millennium Holdings, NL Industries and Sherwin-Williams to participate in an abatement program to clean houses that may have cost the companies upwards of $2.4 billion.

The court also upheld a judgment in favor of ARCO.

The court said that the state could not factually support its claim that companies created a public nuisance.

In the decision, the court said it did not mean to minimize the severity of the harm that thousands of children in Rhode Island have suffered as a result of lead poisoning.

“Our hearts go out to those children whose lives forever have been changed by the poisonous presence of lead. But, however grave the problem of lead poisoning is in Rhode Island, public nuisance law simply does not provide a remedy for this harm. The state has not and cannot allege facts that would fall within the parameters of what would constitute public nuisance under Rhode Island law.”

Supporters of the state's case were predictably disappointed by the decision. Lawyers for the paint companies called the decision "a victory for common sense," and said it "brings Rhode Island back into the mainstream of national law."

But Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch called "enormously disappointing" the court’s reversal today of the jury verdict.

“Today’s decision affects every Rhode Islander, every taxpayer, every parent and, especially, every child -- who has been injured, is still threatened with injury today, or will be poisoned by lead in the future," Lynch said in a statement this afternoon. "This reversal is enormously disappointing, and I disagree with it in the strongest terms."

And U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who filed Rhode Island's first lawsuit against lead paint manufacturers when he was the state's attorney general, said the court today let the companies "off the hook.”

“Many homes remain contaminated; many children already suffer from lead poisoning. Today’s decision makes abatement and treatment efforts the responsibility of Rhode Island families and taxpayers alone, letting the companies who caused this off the hook," Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, said in a statement.

After having work done on his Providence house, annual lead-screening tests had revealed Whitehouse's two children had mildly elevated blood-lead levels.

Extra: Read the decision.

Read about the jury verdict in the trial.

Extra: See The Journal's series on lead poisoning in Rhode Island

More reaction below:

-- projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson, Journal environment writer Peter B. Lord and projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

One of the state’s leading advocates in fighting childhood lead poisoning said she was "profoundly disappointed" but not surprised.

Roberta Hazen Aaronson, executive director of the Childhood Lead Action Project, said the judges expressed strong skepticism of the state’s nuisance theories during oral arguments in May.

Aaronson said she fears that decision will dampen efforts around the country to make the paint companies pay for the harm caused by lead paints. “They wanted a big win here to put a halt to litigation elsewhere,” she said. “And they got it.”

Aaronson is also the co-author of an op-ed column today on projo.com titled "Don’t let paint firms wiggle away."

Jack McConnell, a private lawyer who played a key role in presenting the state’s case, “We are very disappointed that the R.I. Supreme Court chose to ignore the verdict of a jury of Rhode Island citizens and the judgment of a preeminent trial judge in order to absolve the lead paint companies of any responsibility for contaminating thousands of houses in Rhode Island with a poison that has injured tens of thousands of Rhode Island children.”

“This decision leaves homeowners no legal remedy for that contamination against the corporations who made the harmful product in the first place; it will cost the homeowners billions to clean up, and cost the Rhode Island taxpayers millions more than it already has spent .

Don Scott, a lawyer for one of the defendants, NL Industries, said “Today’s ruling brings Rhode Island back into the mainstream of national law.”

Scott said appellate courts in New Jersey, Missouri and Illinois have rejected public nuisance claims against former lead manufacturers.

“Every lawsuit against former manufacturers of lead pigment across the country that has come to a final decision has come out on the side of the manufacturers,” Scott said.

Charles H. Moellenberg, Jr., an attorney for Sherwin Williams, said, “Today’s ruling is a landmark victory for common sense and for responsible companies that did the right thing. This case never should have been filed – it was factually wrong and legally flawed. A company should not be held liable when there is no proof that it did anything wrong.”

In the first hour of stock market trading following the release of the decision, share prices for Sherwin Williams and NL Industries rose slightly. When the Rhode Island jury came down against the companies two years ago, the share prices dropped dramatically.

In response to a reporter’s questions at a press conference today, Moellenberg said Sherwin Williams will consider trying to recover some of its costs during the 9 years of litigation. “This litigation has gone on for a long time and it was unwarranted. The defendant will take a close look at our right to recover costs.”

Moellenberg said he didn’t know what the costs would total.

The lawsuit was filed in 1999, and the first trial ended in mistrial.

It was tried again starting in late 2005, and the four-month trial constituted the longest civil trial in the state's history. On February 22, 2006, a jury found NL Industries, Inc.; the Sherwin-Williams Co. and Millennium Holdings LLC liable under a public nuisance theory.

It was the first time in U.S. history that a trial resulted in a verdict that imposed liability against lead paint manufacturers for creating a public nuisance.

Today's decision also brought two small victories for the state.

The Supreme Court vacated the two contempt citations against Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch. He was fined $15,000 for publicly criticizing the paint company lawyers.

The ruling validated the state's right to have a private attorney represent it on a contingency basis. Law firm Motley Rice was poised to collect 16.6 percent of any money awarded to the state in the case of a favorable ruling.

Your turn: React to the state Supreme Court's ruling.

Posted by Brandie M. Jefferson at 6:50 PM | Comment

Whitehouse: Court let paint makers ' off the hook'

U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, who filed Rhode Island's first lawsuit against lead paint manufacturers when he was the state's attorney general, said the state Supreme Court today let the companies "off the hook" by overturning a 2006 jury verdict that found corporations liable for creating a public nuisance by making paints that poisoned children.

In a 4-0 decision issued today, the state's highest court reversed a Superior Court jury's decision calling for Millennium Holdings, NL Industries and Sherwin-Williams to participate in an abatement program to clean houses that may have cost the companies upwards of $2.4 billion.

The court said that the state could not factually support its claim that companies created a public nuisance.

In the decision, the court said it did not mean to minimize the severity of the harm that thousands of children in Rhode Island have suffered as a result of lead poisoning.

The lead-paint issue "has for years been Rhode Island’s worst public health problem for children," Whitehouse stated. "The court’s decision to overturn a jury verdict holding the paint manufacturers who caused this problem accountable is deeply disappointing to me and to the many people who worked hard for years to remedy this harm."

After having work done on his Providence house, annual lead-screening tests had revealed Whitehouse's two children had mildly elevated blood-lead levels.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney at 5:59 PM | Comment

Update: Sidewalk bump spurs latest Providence killing

Journal photo / Mary Murphy
A Providence patrolman walks down the front steps of the porch of thes home at 145 Camden Ave. this morning where Jeffrey Lopez was shot and killed last night.

PROVIDENCE -- A decision by two Smith Hill teenagers to walk through a pack of Laos Pride gang members cost one of them his life, the police said.

Jeffrey Lopez, 19, was gunned down last night on the front porch of an apartment house less than two blocks from where the confrontation took place on a Camden Avenue sidewalk. A second shot grazed the back of Lopez’s friend, Carlos Javier, also 19.

A few minutes later, the police arrested two 16-year-old boys and a 13-year-old girl. The boys are charged with murder, while the girl is charged with retrieving the gun and threatening the teenage boys outside the gang hangout at 115 Camden Ave.

The police were careful to point out that the murder was not "gang-related." They said that Lopez and Javier were not known to the police and had no gang affiliation. Instead, they just happened to confront the wrong group at the wrong time.

In a city where gun violence has surged in recent months, the police found the city’s eighth murder of the year, and the second teenager in less than a week, particularly senseless.

``It’s ridiculous, frankly,’’ said Deputy Police Chief Paul J. Kennedy. ``It’s not having enough room on the sidewalk to pass. It’s really disheartening. I don’t know how a police department goes about predicting this kind of behavior.’’

Since Jan. 1, there have been 33 gunshot victims in the city, up from 18 during last year’s first six months.

-- Journal staff writer W. Zachary Malinowski

Last night, shortly after 8, Lopez and Javier, high school friends from Textron Chamber of Commerce Academy were heading to the Javier family apartment at 145 Camden Ave. They approached Vale Street and spotted a knot of Asian youths hanging out on the sidewalk.

The corner is across the street from the playground at the Harry Kizarian Elementary School. A nearby utility pole is marked with gang grafitti: "Laos Pride" and ``J-LOC,’’ meaning, Junior-Laotians Out of Control.

The police said that the teenagers decided to walk through the pack near a large locust tree that had sprouted from the sidewalk. They bumped into several of the Laotian boys, and the police said, the teenage girl may have been pushed to the side.

Words were exchanged and the police said that the girl ran inside the apartment house. She emerged with a chrome-plated handgun tucked in her waistband, the police said.

Lopez and Javier had seen enough. They decided to head to the apartment house where Javier lives.

The police said that the girl, who is not a member of the gang, returned the gun to the apartment she shares with her family. The police said that the Laotian boys were not finished. The brother of the girl went back inside and got the gun. About five minutes later, he and a group of about 15 other Laotian boys marched up the street to 145 Camden Ave.

There, Lopez and Javier sensing trouble, ran inside the powder blue vinyl-sided apartment house. They waited another five minutes and returned to the porch, thinking that the Laotian boys had left. They were wrong.

Again, words were exchanged and two shots were fired. The police said that one of the bullets struck Lopez in the back of the neck; the second grazed Javier’s back.

Rafael Javier, the father of Carlos Javier, said he was in his third-floor apartment watching the Red Sox when he heard two gunshots. He ran downstairs and found the wounded Lopez on the second-floor landing. He said that his son had helped drag him up the stairs.

``Really, I don’t know what happened,’’ said the elder Javier, a substitute math teacher at Mt. Pleasant High School.

The police said that the gang of Laotians ran back down Camden Avenue and up Vale Street to Osborn Street. Two Providence police officers assigned to the bicycle patrol, Francisco Guerra and Ludwig Castro learned that the shooting suspects were at 65 Osborn St. They radioed Sgt. Roger Aspinall, the district supervisor, for backup.

Four of Laotian youths, including the two gunmen, were captured at that address. The police also seized a handgun from the house that they believe was used in the shooting.

The two gunmen each were charged with murder and murder conspiracy, while the girl was charged with two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon. They also were charged with multiple firearms violations.

They are being held at the state Training School for Youth pending their appearances in Family Court.

Late this morning, two marked police cruisers remained parked outside the apartment house where Lopez was killed. Blood-stained shoe prints were visible on the front porch. Carlos Javier, who wore a Red Sox cap, emerged from the house and the police took him to police headquarters for further questioning.

The police plan to meet with prosecutors from the attorney general’s office to decide whether the youths will be waived from juvenile court and tried as adults.

Kennedy said that Lopez lived with a family on Alma Street in Federal Hill. His parents live in Florida and the police notified them about their son’s death. They returned to Rhode Island today.

The latest murder also underscored the mounting problems with the Smith Hill-based Laos Pride street gang. The police arrested the two alleged gunmen at 65 Osborn St., the same address where another member of the Asian gang was shot in the leg two months ago.

And, two weeks ago, four members of Laos Pride, two of whom are juveniles, were arrested in the city’s West End on weapons charges right after they allegedly opened fire on a rival gang -- the Hanover Boyz. No one was wounded in that attack.

Kennedy said that the Laotian gang has been a priority for the department’s Gang Intervention Unit.

``We are working hard on bringing them under control,’’ he said. ``We are trying to get them to stop the violence and put the guns down.’’

Extra: Projo.com's special report, The Gangs of Providence

Posted by Mike McKinney at 5:13 PM | Comment

Scholar-athletes walk for peace -- sans Gen. Powell

PROVIDENCE -- Scholar-athletes by the busload have descended on downtown Providence to join together in a walk for peace.

But a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is not walking with them.

Organizers of the U.S. Scholar-Athlete Games, now under way at the University of Rhode Island, had hoped that Gen. Colin Powell would be able to lead the walk.

But Powell has just landed in Rhode Island, and instead will go directly to the Providence Performing Arts Center, where he will give the keynote address for the games.

Students on board twenty-two school buses are now walking along the Providence River waterfront, all wearing Scholar-Athlete Games T-shirts and some carrying signs and banners.

Powell will speak at 7 p.m. and later take questions from the audience. Tickets, on sale at the PPAC box office, are $20 for adults and $15 for students 18 and younger.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Carolyn Thornton

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 4:55 PM | Comment

Lynch: Lead verdict reversal 'enormously disappointing'

PROVIDENCE -- Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch called "enormously disappointing" the state Supreme Court's reversal today of a 2006 jury verdict that had favored the state in its landmark lawsuit against companies that made and sold lead paint in Rhode Island.

Rhode Island's highest court, in a 4-to-0 decision, overturned the 2006 verdict calling for Millennium Holdings, NL Industries and Sherwin-Williams to participate in a program to rid houses of lead that could have cost the companies upwards of $2.4 billion.

The high court also upheld a judgment in favor of ARCO.

The court said the state could not factually support its claim that the companies created a public nuisance.

The high court's ruling that the defendants "do not have to clean up the mess they have made," according to Lynch, is "legally and fundamentally wrong."

The case was litigated for more than eight years, Lynch said, and, "despite the multi-million dollar lead industry-funded defense waged by an army of more than 100 lawyers, my office proved to the satisfaction of a unanimous jury that the three defendants were liable for the public nuisance that their products created in Rhode Island."

Lynch said he wants every Rhode Islander to know "this office fought this battle well, and to what appears to be the end."

He added: "We met every legal challenge from Corporate America’s defense counsel and we survived their every attack to secure victory from a jury of our peers. I believed then, believe now, and will always believe, that our peers got it right.”

The first state lawsuit against lead-paint manufacturers was actually filed by Lynch's predecessor, Sheldon Whitehouse, now one of Rhode Island's U.S. senators. After having work done on his Providence house, annual lead-screening tests had revealed his two children had mildly elevated blood-lead levels.

Extra: Read the decision

Extra: See the Journal's series on lead poisoning in Rhode Island

Read about the jury verdict in the trial

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

Posted by Mike McKinney at 3:57 PM | Comment

Update: 3 officers return to duty after death of suspect

WEST WARWICK –– Three of the five West Warwick police officers who were placed on administrative leave after the death of a man in their custody have returned to duty today.

But the two initial responders, Patrick Kelly and Sean Lukowicz, are still on administrative leave pending the completion of an investigation into the death of 47-year-old Mark Jackson.

West Warwick Police Chief Paul A. Villa did not take any questions at a news conference this afternoon at Town Hall.

Villa said Marcus Palazzo and brothers Thomas and Michael Nye did not use pepper spray or batons on Jackson, and arrived in time to handcuff him.

-- projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson, with reports from Journal staff writer Talia Buford

Jackson, of Warwick, had been staying his mother, who says her son had schizophrenia. On June 27 he was walking behind a liquor store when a police officer arrived, responding to a call of vandalism of the store’s sign.

When an officer asked Jackson to remove his hands from his pockets, he wouldn’t, according to a June 28 statement released by the West Warwick police. The officer called for backup, and another officer arrived.

The police say Jackson became “combative” as the two officers approached. In the scuffle that followed, officers were knocked to the ground. The police used pepper spray on Jackson, according to the June 28 statement, and when that didn’t work, they said they used expandable batons to hit Jackson’s legs.

Three additional officers would arrive on the scene before they were able to handcuff Jackson. The police said that Jackson was speaking to officers as he was being placed into the cruiser.

Neighbors, however, say Jackson was motionless, lying face down as the final group of officers pulled up. Witnesses said officers had to lift Jackson and put him into the cruiser.

An autopsy was completed, but the Medical Examiner's Office said the cause of death was "pending further studies."

Posted by Brandie M. Jefferson at 3:00 PM | Comment

Murder defendant claims police pressured him / Photo

Journal photo / Bob Breidenbach
Brian Mlyniec answers questions from the stand today during his trial in Superior Court.

WARWICK -- Brian Mlyniec, who is accused of murdering Kelly Ann Andersen two years ago, testified under questioning in court today that he did not recall various things he had told detectives in a videotaped interview -- and did not even remember being driven in a police car to the station for the interview.

On June 23, 2006, police found Andersen's body in Mlyniec's West Warwick house and Mlyniec was questioned during a videotaped interview lasting almost three hours at the station that day. He had not at that point been charged in her death.

"The police led me to say many incriminating statements," Mlyniec testified today in reference to what he said in the interview. At various times, Mlyniec said today he did not recall or had been pressured into saying things by detectives.

Mlyniec said in court today that a combination of things affected him at the time: He had not slept, was in a state of shock, and had drank alcohol at times.

Mlyniec, 45, took the witness stand in Superior Court yesterday afternoon, describing his relationship with Andersen, 41, and testifying about incidents that led up to her death, and he continued testimony today.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney, with reports from Journal staff writer Nandini Jayakrishna

Yesterday, Mlyniec testified that the two drank and engaged in sexual activity nightly. In one sexual encounter, he said, Andersen described the practice of tying a belt, scarf or other object around one’s partner’s neck, but he said he did not do it to her.

The evening of June 22, 2006, Mlyniec told the jury, he encountered Andersen at Kennedy Plaza in Providence and the two shared alcohol, walked around and made out behind a Dumpster. He told the court she was staggering and he thought that she had started using heroin again. The two eventually went to his house.

A state medical examiner testified earlier in the trial that strangulation, not a drug overdose, is what killed Andersen.

Mlyniec is charged with first-degree murder. Closing arguments are expected to get underway this afternoon in Kent County Superior Court.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 2:02 PM | Comment

Starting today: No more electronics in the landfill

Beginning today, no more dumping computers or televisions in the Central Landfill.

New state e-waste legislation bans the disposal of computers and televisions in the Johnston site.

So what to do with that Apple II that’s been sitting in your basement? The Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation will take it, and your television –– although that will cost you.

On Saturday, July 26, the RIRRC, which operates the Central Landfill in Johnston, is holding an Eco-Depot collection. Bring your old computers, keyboards, cell phones and other electronic equipment to be recycled for free.

RIRRC will also accept old televisions for $5 –– the cost is meant to offset the difficulty of handling the cathode ray tubes inside TVs.

Last year Resource Recovery recycled 643,000 pounds of e-waste –– up from 514,000 pounds in 2006 and more than double the amount the agency collected in 2005.

If you plan on recycling a television or any of the other toxic materials –– paint, propane tanks, fertilizers –– that the Eco-Depot accepts, make an appointment online, or by calling 401-942-1430 x241. No appointment is necessary to drop off computers.

Posted by Brandie M. Jefferson at 1:57 PM | Comment

Drug suspect allegedly assaults officer at hospital

PROVIDENCE -- The police allege that a drug suspect who was brought to Rhode Island Hospital for treatment today struck the officer who had arrested him and then tried to escape.

The police had caught Willie Franklin, 46, with drugs, which he ingested during the arrest, said Maj. Paul Fitzgerald. Franklin was brought to the emergency room at Rhode Island Hospital for treatment.

When Officer Richard Ramirez removed Franklin’s handcuffs, the suspect, whom the police call 'Tiger,' assaulted Ramirez, breaking the officer’s nose and giving him two black eyes, Fitzgerald said. Franklin took off from the emergency room, running outside, where he was grabbed by the hospital security officers, according to the police.

Franklin is back in the hospital, back in custody, and now facing a felony assault charge, Fitzgerald said.

-- Journal staff writer Amanda Milkovits

Posted by Mike McKinney at 1:41 PM | Comment

Health Dept. reopens 2 beaches, shuts 3 to swimming

The state Department of Health today reopened to swimming the City Park Beach in Warwick and Echo Lake Camps in Burrillville.

Water samples showed bacteria counts within acceptable limits, a health department news release states.

Because of high bacteria levels, the department today closed to swimming the Atlantic Beach in Middletown, Conimicut Point Beach and Oakland Beach, both in Warwick.

For updates about swimming at Rhode Island beaches, go to www.health.ri.gov or for recorded information call (401) 222-2751.

Posted by Mike McKinney at 1:20 PM | Comment

Rally in Central Falls planned to protest budget cuts

CENTRAL FALLS -- Several community groups will gather in Central Falls this afternoon to protest millions of dollars in budget cuts that take effect today, the first day of the state's fiscal year.

The rally, which is being organized by the Rhode Island Coalition for the Homeless, starts at 2 p.m. Speakers will include adults slated to lose health care coverage, welfare recipients who will be subject to tighten time limits, and representatives from nonprofit groups whose state funding was cut in half in the state budget approved by the General Assembly and signed by the governor late last month.

Seeking to close a $425-million budget deficit, lawmakers cut in half state funding for programs such as Meals on Wheels, the Rhode Island Community Food Bank and the Crossroads homeless shelter.

-- Steve Peoples, Journal State House Bureau

Posted by Steve Peoples at 12:30 PM | Comment

Recovery effort continues for diver lost off Jamestown

Bousquetaerials.com / Nate Bousquet
Fort Wetherill State Park in Jamestown, with its gun emplacements of steel-reinforced concrete, is seen in an aerial photo shot June 21 and featured in The Journal's South County icons today. The fort sits on 100-foot-granite cliffs, according to www.riparks.com, a Web site of the state Department of Environmental Management. It was a part of America's coastal defense system from the Revolution to World War II. It's belonged to the state since 1972.

JAMESTOWN -- Fire department boats, the Coast Guard and members of the Department of Environmental Management have been at Fort Wetherill State Park today, searching for a man who has been missing since yesterday.

The search for Derrick Cazard, 24, is now considered a “recovery effort,” according to DEM Lt. Michael Longtin. Cazard had been visiting the park with four friends yesterday. He jumped into the water from a 10- to 15-foot drop, according to the police.

Fog is hindering the effort, Longtin said, with visibility at 50 feet. The search is proceeding with caution.

Cazard was last seen face down in a crevasse. The rocky outcropping slopes in toward the water and signs in the area indicate that diving is not allowed. But it has long been a popular spot for such activity.

Authorities searched for Cazard until about 8:20 last night by helicopter and boat. Jamestown police will return to the site at about noon, Lontin said.

And DEM officials will return to the area periodically in the next couple of days to continue the search.

Read today's Journal story.

-- projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson, with reports from Journal staff writer Katie Mulvaney

Posted by Brandie M. Jefferson at 12:00 PM | Comment

Colin Powell at PPAC tonight, may lead 'peace walk'

PROVIDENCE -- Gen. Colin Powell, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who served as secretary of state during President George W. Bush’s first term, will deliver the keynote address for the U.S. Scholar-Athlete Games -- already under way at the University of Rhode Island -- tonight at the Providence Performing Arts Center.

Powell will speak at 7 p.m. and later take questions from the audience. Tickets, on sale at the PPAC box office, are $20 for adults and $15 for students 18 and younger.

Schedule permitting, Powell may also lead the games’ first "peace walk" by about 1,000 competitors and their coaches in downtown Providence this afternoon. The walk is scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. from the park on South Main Street near the Licht Judicial Complex and proceed along the river walk to Burnside Park.

Since the games began, in 1993, the goal has been to eventually hold a "peace summit," said Dan Doyle, the games’ founder and executive director of the Institute for International Sport, which sponsors the games. The peace walk is the first in a series of events meant to lead up to the summit, Doyle said.

The U.S. Scholar-Athlete Games began Saturday and continue through Saturday at URI; it includes high school students from almost every state and 20 nations.

Read Mike Szostak's column: For 1,000 athletes, Scholar-Athlete Games are more than just sports

Posted by maria caporizzo at 11:34 AM | Comment

Rhode Island's median house price fell again in May

Rhode Island's median house price in May fell 8.2 percent from a year earlier, according to a report out today by the Boston research firm, The Warren Group.

The median price of a single-family house in May was $245,000, down from $267,000 in May of last year, the report said. So far this year, the median house price in the state has declined nearly 10 percent.

Meanwhile, the state's single-family house sales in May plunged nearly 14 percent, the tenth consecutive double-digit decline, the report said. There were 688 single-family houses sold in May, compared with 799 sold in May of last year.

So far this year, the number of single-family houses sold in the state declined about 19 percent, to 2,540 sales, compared with 3,135 sales during the first five months of last year. (The Warren Group data includes sales by owners as well as sales through real estate agents.)

Meanwhile, the number of condos sold in May fell 38.1 percent, to 161 sales, compared with 260 sales in May of last year.

Condo prices have held up better, with the median price in May at $228,000, down 1.7 percent from $232,000 in May of last year. So far this year, the median condo price has fallen 2.2 percent.

-- Journal staff writer Lynn Arditi

Posted by Mike McKinney at 11:33 AM | Comment

Girl, 13, 2 boys, 16, nabbed in Providence teen murder

PROVIDENCE -- A 13-year-old girl and two 16-year-old boys have been arrested in connection with the murder of a 19-year-old man in the city’s Smith Hill neighborhood, police said.

The 19-year-old victim, Jeffrey Lopez, was shot and killed as he sat on his porch with his friend, Carlos Javier, also 19.

A bullet grazed Javier’s back, but he was not seriously injured.

Today, police cruisers are parked outside the house at 145 Camden Ave. –– across the street from the Camden Elementary School Playground –– where the shooting occurred last night.

The shooting was retaliation, the police said, for a minor altercation on the street earlier in the night.

The two boys face murder and murder conspiracy charges. The girl, who is the sister of one of the male suspects, faces assault with a dangerous weapon.

The police say at about 8:30 p.m. she went inside to get a gun to scare the other group of kids, and one of the other suspects allegedly fired two shots, hitting Lopez in the back of the neck, and grazing Javier in the back.

Lopez was pronounced dead at Rhode Island Hospital this morning.

Lopez’s murder was the 8th homicide of the year in the city and the third in less than two weeks.

-- Journal staff writer W. Zachary Malinowski

Posted by Brandie M. Jefferson at 11:05 AM | Comment

Conn. man dies while swimming

Connecticut police are investigating the death of a Voluntown, Conn., man who was swimming with his son yesterday.

According to a police report, Thomas Girard and his son Marc Girard were swimming at Green Falls, about 10 minutes from the Rhode Island border, when Thomas Girard “became distressed.”

Marc Girard then tried to save his father, but he became distressed also, according to the report.

Both men were taken out of the water the volunteer fire department.

Thomas Girard was pronounced dead on the scene.

Marc Girard was taken to Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence. The incident is still under investigation, but, according to the report, there’s no criminal activity suspected.

The waters of southern New England have proved treacherous for swimmers in recent days.

On Sunday, 14-year-old Tiffany Martinez was critically injured when she tried to help friends who were caught in a strong current at Conimicut Beach in Warwick.

In Jamestown yesterday, a Newport man died as he was apparently overpowered by a strong current while diving off the cliffs on Fort Wetherill State Park, the police said.

Posted by Brandie M. Jefferson at 9:55 AM | Comment

City's 8th murder, also a teenager

The police are investigating a shooting in Providence that has led to the city’s 8th murder of the year.

A 19-year-old was shot in the neck last night on Camden Avenue, according to Providence detectives.

The victim, whose name has not yet been released, died early this morning at Rhode Island Hospital.

The fatal shooting follows a violent week in Rhode Island. Last Wednesday, three people in the state were killed.

In Providence, Virgilio Rojo, 17, of 470 Manton Ave., was found with a gunshot wound at 124 Eastwood Ave. He was later pronounced dead at Rhode Island Hospital.

That same night, Mayra Cruz, 26, was found dead in a Pawtucket apartment, and a 17-year-old was fatally shot in Woonsocket.

-- projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson, with reports from Journal staff writer W. Zachary Malinowski

Posted by Brandie M. Jefferson at 9:43 AM | Comment

Bruins to offer free food with some season tickets

BOSTON — Boston Bruins executives are hoping that the way to a hockey fan’s heart is through his stomach.

The NHL franchise is selling season tickets that also include all-you-can-eat soda and snacks, including hot dogs, chili, chips, cookies and other treats.

The team has dedicated 500 balcony seats at the TD Banknorth Garden for the $1,677-per-ticket “Hungry for Hockey” promotion. That works out to about $39 per game.

Amy Latimer, senior vice president of sales and marketing, says the promotion is about offering value to fans. But the seats are also in a corner area of the arena that are usually hard to fill through season ticket sales.

Ticket holders will receive a wristband and get their food from a dedicated cafeteria-style area

-- The Associated Press

Posted by Brandie M. Jefferson at 8:03 AM | Comment

Today in history: Gettysburg

On this day in 1863, the Civil War Battle of Gettysburg began.

Another blah day

It's the same old song.

The National Weather Service is forecasting a slight chance of isolated showers early this afternoon, followed by isolated thunderstorms later in the day. Temperatures should reach about 84 degrees with with south winds between 10 and 13 mph.

More isolated showers and storms are possible tonight when temperatures drop to about 65 degrees. We'll have partly cloudy skies and mild southwest winds.

Tomorrow sounds similar, slight chance of rain beginning in the late morning. Skies should remain partly cloudy, with temperatures reaching 82 degrees and southwest winds between 6 and 13 mph.

Check the rest of the week's forecast on projo.com's weather page.

Posted by Brandie M. Jefferson at 7:01 AM | Comment

Today's front page: Providence fireworks cancelled

Today's front page features the story of an alleged thief captured via an apartment webcam and a report about the cancellation of July 4 fireworks in Providence.

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

Posted by Jack Perry at 7:00 AM | Comment