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July 8, 2008

Tonight: Take your pick of outdoor concerts

Too summery to stay inside tonight? Then you might enjoy one of these outdoor summer concerts:

The John Moitoza Band, Dixieland jazz, Easton’s Beach, 175 Memorial Blvd., Newport. 845-5810. 6 pm. Rescheduled if rain.

Summer Concert, featuring violinist Alanna Tonetti-Tieppo and a folk-rock group featuring Marie Chabot, Veterans Park, North Attleboro Town Hall, 43 South Washington St., North Attleboro, Mass. 7 pm. Free.

Summer Concert Series: The Bandstand Revue, oldies and swing, Wickford Town Dock, Brown Street, North Kingstown. 294-3331, ext. 241, www.NKArtsCouncil.org. 7 pm. Rain site: North Kingstown High School, 150 Fairway Drive.

(FYI, the forecasts for points around Rhode Island expect the evening to stay mostly clear, if hazy near the shore, and warm.)

More ideas on what to do from projo.com ...

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 6:54 PM | Comment

PUC hears pleas against utility rate hikes / Photo

Journal photo / Andrew Dickerman
Ada Morales, of Providence, wipes away tears as she shows notices that gas and electricity are going to be shut off in the home she shares with her elderly parents and small children, during a public hearing today before the state Public Utilities Commission on National Grid's rate requests.

WARWICK -- About 20 people -- some who have had utilities shut off -- implored the Public Utilities Commission today not to approve rate increases that National Grid has requested for natural gas and electricity.

Speaker after speaker at a public hearing said the increased rates -- 21.7 percent for electricity and 10 percent for gas -- will force more people to lose electricity, which they need to stay cool in the summer, and gas, which they need to stay warm in the winter.

"None of us today in 2008 can live without electricity. We all need it," Elizabeth Dees testified. "It is unaffordable for a large percentage of the population of Rhode Island."

"Our income is not that much, and the bill is so high," said Elaine Keller. "Everything's expensive, but they're paying me the same thing."

She said her gas had been shut off because she was behind on her bills, and National Grid wanted to put her on a payment plan to catch up. The utility asked her for $400 a month over three months. But, she said, her monthly income is only $700, and she has five children.

National Grid upped its electricity rate request last week, from a 15.6 percent increase, citing increases in energy costs. The request is the largest single rate increase the company has ever sought, and would put rates at their highest level ever. National Grid has asked the new rates to go into effect on July 15.

In testimony to the commission after the public hearing ended, a National Grid representative said he sympathized with people whose utilities had been shut off.

"We're trying as best as we can to not ask any more than we feel is essential," said Gary L. Beland, a manager in the gas pricing department. But, he said, the utility's own fuel costs are also rising. "Our gas bill, if you look at the part that is not hedged, has gone up over 70 percent in the last three months."

Regulators have little discretion when it comes to rate-increase requests that are based on rising fuel prices. State and federal laws allow a utility company to recover from customers what it pays for electricity or natural gas, as long as the company makes "prudent" buying decisions. The PUC could cut the proposed rate increase, or delay it. But eventually, customers will have to pick up the increased costs.

No more public hearings will be held on the rate requests. The PUC will decide on them either this Thursday or next Thursday, July 17.

Extra: See the proposal as put forward before the PUC.

-- Journal staff writer Paul Parker

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 5:55 PM | Comment

Update: Whitehouse reads Washington's letter to Touro

Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse was among U.S. senators today who read from important documents that helped shape our nation, as the Senate celebrated Independence Day.

While the Declaration of Independence was among the documents, Whitehouse read from a 1790 letter from President George Washington to the congregation of Touro Synagogue in Newport.

The group chose Newport, according to the congregation’s Web site, after hearing of Rhode Island founder Roger William's dedication to religious acceptance.

The synagogue, established in 1763 by a group of 15 Jewish families, has served as a meeting place for the Rhode Island General Assembly and a hospital for British troops, sparing it from destruction during the American Revolution.

In Washington’s letter to the congregation, Washington asserted that the new sovereign nation would “… give to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance;” an example of the country’s commitment to religious freedom.

Video: Watch Whitehouse's reading of the letter and learn more about its history.

-- projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson

Posted by Brandie M. Jefferson at 5:14 PM | Comment

Rhode Islander moving in to Big Brother house

A new chapter is about to open in the saga of Rhode Islanders and reality TV.

Michelle Costa, 28, of Cumberland is one of 13 competitors, ranging in age from 22 to 75, about to move into the Big Brother 10 house as the CBS series returns to its original concept, strangers living together in a house and battling it out for the $500,000 first prize.

The show, which will air three nights a week — Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday — premieres Sunday, July 13, at 8 p.m. on Channels 4 and 12.

Costa is single and lists her occupation as a Realtor on the CBS announcement.

-- Journal features writer Lynne Chaput

Posted by Andrea Panciera at 4:42 PM | Comment

Narragansett tribe member stabbed at Cape powwow

A 19-year-old Narragansett tribal member is in stable condition at Cape Cod Hospital after being stabbed while trying to break up a fight at a Mashpee Wampanoag powwow last weekend, according to his mother.

While police refused to identify the man who was stabbed, his mother, Bella Noka of Richmond, said today it was her son, Norman Gonsalves, of Providence.

She said Gonsalves suffered a punctured liver, diaphragm and collapsed lung after being attacked from behind while trying to protect a woman. He has drifted in and out of consciousness, she said, but described today as his first “very stable day” since the incident.

Gonsalves was competing as a traditional dancer at the annual powwow, she said.

“He’s just a hard-working kid and for something like this to happen,” she said. Gonsalves is the stepson of her husband, Tribal Councilman Randy Noka.

The Mashpee, Mass., police were called to a wooded area behind the Mashpee Wampanoag land at 4:16 a.m. Sunday, according to Police Chief Rodney Collins. They learned that a man had been stabbed twice in the torso from behind after trying to break up a fight between two people.

The man, whom Collins refused to identify, was taken to Cape Cod Hospital with serious injuries. The police have not recovered a weapon, but believe it was a knife, he said.

-- Journal staff writer Katie Mulvaney

Officers were met by hostility when they arrived and have gotten little cooperation from the 25 to 30 people who were at the scene, Collins said.

“Until some of the so-called witnesses step up and assist in our investigation, we’re being obstructed in making an arrest,” he said.

The local police have authority on tribal land there, which has been deeded to the Mashpee Wampanoags but has not been placed in trust, Collins said.

Collins asked anyone with information about the stabbing call Detective Robert Waterfield at (508) 539-1480, ext. 242.

Posted by Jack Perry at 2:41 PM | Comment

Inmate returned to ACI after assault charge

An inmate at the Adult Correctional Institutions who is accused of assaulting another inmate is back at the ACI after a judge ordered him held on bail.

George Ortiz, 34, was arraigned on felony assault charges in 3rd District Court yesterday, and held on $50,000 surety, or $5,000 cash bail. He was presented as a Superior Court probation violator for prior Possession of Narcotics charges

State police Maj. Stephen O'Donnell said yesterday that on July 4, Ortiz and Robert Bainter, 20, got into an argument, and then Ortiz hit Bainter in the head three times. Bainter fell, striking his head and suffering severe head trauma, O’Donnell said.

Bainter was in critical condition yesterday morning, according to the state police, but Rhode Island Hospital would not provide updated information on Bainer's condition to projo.com today.

The hospital has a policy that prohibits employees from releasing conditions of patients who are inmates at the ACI, according to spokeswoman Jill Reuter.

Ortiz, whose most recent address is in Central Falls, is serving six months for domestic assault, according to Department of Corrections spokeswoman Tracey Poole. He was due for release Aug. 13.

Bainter, whose most recent address is in Coventry, is serving four years for robbery, Poole said. He is scheduled for release in October 2010.

Both men were in minimum security; Ortiz has since been moved to high security.

-- projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson

Posted by Brandie M. Jefferson at 11:48 AM | Comment

Education Partnership's finances, scholarship aid awry

PROVIDENCE -- The financial records of the nonprofit Education Partnership are in such disarray they will require a forensic accountant to review them, the lawyer appointed to sort out the organization’s finances said this morning.

Among those owed money are 95 college students who were promised about $177,000 in scholarships that apparently have not been paid, attorney Allan M. Shine told Superior Court Judge Michael A. Silverstein. So far, about 30 of the affected students have contacted Shine directly, he said.

“As of now, your Honor, the records are not in perfect condition … I think that is an understatement,” Shine said. “… We need to reconstruct records that are, as I say, less than complete. It will take us a while to sort this out.”

The Education Partnership, an advocacy organization backed by local businesses, went into receivership last month, in part because several contracts for conducting research for municipalities and school districts fell through, said Shine. He was appointed permanent receiver by the court this morning after serving as temporary receiver since June 18.

Shine said that money from different sources — including federal grants earmarked for specific programs, grants from private sources and scholarship money –– apparently was mingled with the Education Partnership’s operational expenses. “There were no separate escrow accounts,” Shine said.

Since 2005, the Partnership has administered the Louis Feinstein Memorial Scholarship, created 15 years ago by philanthropist Alan Shawn Feinstein in honor of his late father, Louis.

An attorney for Feinstein said his client was dismayed to learn that the scholarship money was not kept in a separate account, used solely for student aid.

-- Journal staff writer Jennifer Jordan

“We understood that money would remain segregated,” said lawyer Mark Morse. “We remain concerned about the management of these funds and the failure to abide by the investment policy and … the scholarship guidelines. Mr. Feinstein is also concerned about the damage to his reputation because of the mismanagement of these funds.”

Other creditors include Sovereign Bank, which loaned the organization $305,000, and several teachers and instructors who said the Education Partnership never paid them for after-school programs they provided this year at a Providence public school.

The Rhode Island Attorney’s General Office is concerned about the scholarship money and will review financial records and legal documents associated with the scholarship fund as they becomes available, said Assistant Attorney General James Lee, who attended the hearing.

Creditors now have four months to make their claims to Shine.

A hearing to appoint a forensic accountant was scheduled at Superior Court, July 21, at 9:30 a.m.

Posted by Jack Perry at 11:38 AM | Comment

Survivor of Middletown plane crash still critical

The sole survivor of a plane crash in Middletown is still listed in critical condition today, according to Rhode Island Hospital spokeswoman Jill Reuter.

Keith Ulich, 28, is in an induced coma, and doctors removed both of his feet because of the extent of his burns, family members said.

Killed in Thursday's crash were Ulich’s wife, Pamela Ulich Lancaster, 43, and flight instructor Charles W. Thompson –– all of Newport.

Read about their lives on projo.com.

Posted by Brandie M. Jefferson at 10:21 AM | Comment

Audubon to reopen Bristol boardwalk today

It’s a nice day for a walk by the waterfront.

Luckily for Rhode Islanders, the Audubon Society is reopening a boardwalk that was damaged in April after a fire moved through the brush and marsh near the Audubon’s Environmental Education Center in Bristol.

In addition to fire damage, firefighters had to tear up sections of the boardwalk to get to flames as they began to make their way toward the Education Center building, as well as homes and businesses.

At 2 p.m. today the boardwalk reopens, newly reconstructed, nearly three months after the fire.

Posted by Brandie M. Jefferson at 9:48 AM | Comment

Search continues for missing boater from Conn.

The Coast Guard and other agencies were continuing their search this morning for a Connecticut man who fell off his sailboat yesterday afternoon near the northern entrance of the Sakonnet River

A helicopter from Air Station Cape Cod this morning joined the cutter Tiger Shark, which searched through the night without finding Bernard Mochan, 65, of Clinton, Conn., according to Petty Officer Connie Terrell at the Coast Guard's First District headquarters in Boston.

Mochan was boating with his wife aboard the 32-foot Elizabeth when he was struck on the head by the vessel’s boom and went overboard. He was not wearing a flotation device. Mochan's wife called the Coast Guard around 4:50 p.m.

Late last night the crew of a 25-foot Coast Guard boat out of Castle Hill in Newport found a hat in the waters of the search area centered about one-tenth of a mile west of Tiverton, the Coast Guard said. Mochan's wife confirmed it belonged to her husband.

Posted by Jack Perry at 9:35 AM | Comment

Traffic Alert: Oil spill on Route 95

An oil spill has a lane closed and is slowing traffic this morning.

The accident, on the southbound side of the roadway has the right lane closed near Exit 6A/Hopkins Hill Road.

To see how traffic is being affected, see the Transportation Management Center's Web cameras.

Posted by Brandie M. Jefferson at 8:21 AM | Comment

Today in history: The king grants R.I. a charter

On this day in 1663, King Charles II of England granted a charter to Rhode Island.

Read more about today in history.

Watch a video report about today in history.

Posted by Jack Perry at 7:02 AM | Comment

A high near 89, humid, thunderstorms possible later

The temperature in the Providence area should climb to 89 degrees under partly sunny skies today, according to the National Weather Service.

The warm and humid air now in the region could bring scattered showers and thunderstorms this afternoon.

The weather service is also warning of an increasing risk of rip tides on south-facing beaches.

Posted by Jack Perry at 7:01 AM | Comment

Today's front page: Paroled killer charged in robbery

Today's front page features the story of a paroled murderer accused of entering a North Kingstown house, threatening a woman at home with her baby and stealing her SUV.

Download a copy of the front page in .pdf format.

Posted by Jack Perry at 7:00 AM | Comment