Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Journal photo/ Mary Murphy
Steelworkers position the last beam to be raised at the topping-off ceremony today for the athletic complex section of what will be the new vocational-technical high school next to Central High School in Providence.

By Steve Peoples
Journal State House bureau

The president of what is believed to be the second-largest state employees union was ousted by her members this week in a closely contested election.

Lucie Burdick, largely considered a rising star in Rhode Island's organized labor movement, led Local 580, the social workers union, for just one two-year term before losing by 27 votes in Monday's regularly scheduled election.

President-elect Phil Keefe will take over the 900-member union on Jan. 1.

"I was shocked," Burdick said when reached today. "I think I paid for doing the right thing. I endorsed and advocated the contract this summer and it was a little controversial with some people. Even though it passed overwhelmingly, the people who opposed me used it against me."

She continued: "It was pretty much the campaign issue. People have to put their frustrations somewhere."

At her urging, Local 580 this summer endorsed a four-year contract brokered between union leaders and the governor's office that would have saved the state millions of dollars through increased health care co-shares, among other changes.

Members of the largest state employees union, Council 94, voted against the deal soon afterward, although they subsequently approved a similar deal at the urging of the state Supreme Court.

"I'm so proud of our contract. People have security through 2012," Burdick said. "We tried to cooperate. I think we put a different face on labor."

Also ousted in this week's election was Local 580 second vice president Kathy McElroy, the daughter of recently retired American Federation of Teachers leader, Edward McElroy.

Burdick said she was disappointed, but that she would support the new president.

"You don't hurt your union because your own feelings are hurt," she said. "I wish him well. He's got a lot of work ahead of him."

Burdick is the second top labor official to lose her union job in recent weeks. Council 94's executive director, Dennis Grilli, was placed on paid adminstrative leave earlier in the month "to move Council 94 in a new direction," according to president Michael Downey.

Journal photo/ Bill Murphy
Sunrise in Lincoln Friday morning as seen through a frost-covered window. Lincoln residents are waking up to cold temperatures, and it won't get much warmer. It was 23 degrees at 8:15 a.m. in Lincoln. The temperature is forecast to reach just 34 degrees, and the wind will blow from the northwest at 5 to 9 mph., making it feel colder.

On this day in 1995, the Dow Jones industrial average closed above 5,000 for the first time.

Read more about today in history.

Today's front page features a report that Rhode Island's unemployment rate has climbed to 9.3 percent, the highest rate since 1983.

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

Journal photo/ Kathy Borchers
Kendell Bliss was arraigned in District Court this morning before Judge Pamela Woodcock Pfeiffer for the murder of Leonardo Manzano August 16 in Providence. Bliss was brought into District Court for arraignment from the Adult Correctional Institutions, where he was being held in an unrelated case. Manzano, 19, of 204 Saratoga St., Providence, had gotten into a car that was leaving Clym Street shortly before 10 p.m. when he was shot in the back from outside the car, according to the police. Manzano was taken by the driver of the car to Rhode Island Hospital, where he died of a gunshot wound, the police said.

On this day in 1945, twenty-four Nazi leaders went on trial before an international war crimes tribunal in Nuremberg, Germany.

Read more about today in history.

Today's front page looks at Rhode Island's homeless problem as the coldest weather of the season moved into the area. There is also a report on the police digging up what's believed to be the body of a man killed 30 years ago in a mob hit.

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

Journal photo / Steve Szydlowski
Investigators place some of their findings into evidence bags after turning up what they believe are the remains of mob hit victim Joseoh "Joe Onions" Scanlon in an East Providence yard this afternoon.

EAST PROVIDENCE -- Investigators digging for the victim of a mob hit 30 years ago found a boot, bones and what appears to be a jacket this afternoon. They feel confident they've turned up the remains of the reputed mob associate-turned police informant.

"We have strong reason to believe that this is the body of Joe 'Onions' Scanlon," state police Col. Brendan Doherty said at an impromptu news conference at the scene of the search.

A pathologist from the Office of State Medical Examiners will determine whether they are indeed Scanlon's remains.

After turning up a boot at 2:18 p.m., digging stopped in the yard of the Lisboa Apartments complex in the city's Riverside section where backhoes have been been at work since Monday.

A white sheet was spread out, and blue-gloved investigators from the state Medical Examiners Office and Rhode Island State Police were using it to sift through dirt pulled up in the same scoop that revealed the footwear. A picnic bench was put into service to hold evidence, as well as the usual evidence bags.

Handshakes were given all around, including to the backhoe operator, and the deep holes on the property were being filled up by 3 p.m. today.

The investigators hit pay dirt about 30 feet straight back from the rear door of the apartment complex, near a stockade fence.

Investigators have been digging with backhoes in the area near the East Bay Bicycle Path since Monday, the day law enforcement agents netted close to two dozen on racketeering and other criminal charges.

Investigators had remained certain they will find what they are looking for.

On Monday morning, Nicholas "Nicky" Pari, 71, of North Providence, one of two men convicted of killing Scanlon, accompanied state police detectives to Riverside and showed them the area where he buried the body. The state police dog also detected a scent of human remains.

Journal file photo
Joseph P. "Joe Onions" Scanlon, in 1978

According to testimony at the trial of Nicholas Pari and Andy Merola, Scanlon was wearing dungarees, a windbreaker and brown shoe boots when he was shot.

Pari was among those, including mob hitman Gerald "Gerry" Tillinghast, arrested in a large-scale racketeering, drug peddling and stolen goods ring that the authorities allege operated out of a flea market on Valley Street in Providence.

Former R.I. Attorney General Dennis J. Roberts II had agreed to reduce first-degree charges against Merola and Pari in 1982 after Pari told prosecutors that Scanlon's body had been dumped in the ocean off Narragansett.

Today, Robert said he is very surprised that the police found Scanlon's body buried in East Providence. "I've been duped. What can I tell you? It was a bizarre case. I really had thought that they took this guy way out in Block Island Sound and dumped him overboard. The tide wouldn't wash him in. I figured he'd be out there with Captain Kidd forever."

Journal photo / Bill Murphy
Digging today produced a hole that looks more like a trench, as excavators moved closer to the apartment complex at 378 Bullocks Point Ave. in their third -- and last -- day of the search. Watch video of their efforts today.

-- With reports from Journal staff writers W. Zachary Malinowski and Tracy Breton

ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) -- A 74-year-old blind woman's 1-cent debt to the city of Attleboro has been settled.

People from across the country called city hall on yesterday offering to pay the 1-cent balance owed by Eileen Wilbur for an overdue water and sewer bill.

Antonio Viveiros, a former city councilor who does not know Wilbur, wrote a check for one penny yesterday. He tells The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro that he was "irked" by the fact that the federal government can spend billions for bailouts, yet a senior citizen was threatened with a lien on her home of 50 years over 1 cent.

Wilbur's daughter first noticed the letter that warned of a lien and a $48 penalty if the overdue bill was not paid by Dec. 10.

Mayor Kevin Dumas says the whole situation was blown out of proportion.

-- The Associated Press

On this day in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address as he dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania.

Read more about today in history.

Today's front page features some good economic bills for Rhode Islanders. National Grid is seeking to lower its electricity rates by about 13.7 percent as of Jan. 1.

There's also more about the fatal plane crash Monday in Smithfield , a report on Governor Carcieri's paying $2,500 to settle an ethics violation and a look at a 30-year-old mob murder.

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

The two men killed in a plane crash yesterday in Smithfield are Ronald Tetreault, 64, of Glocester, and Robert Zoglio Jr., 43, of Richmond, their wives said today.

Although authorities have not officially released the names of the crash victims, Beth Tetreault, of Glocester, confirmed today that her husband, Ronald, was killed. Earlier today Donna J. Zoglio had confirmed that her husband, Robert, the owner of the plane, was killed.

The men were killed when the small plane they were flying crashed into woods between Clark Road and Limerock Road about a half-mile from the North Central State Airport in Smithfield at about 5 p.m. yesterday.

Tetreault was happiest flying, his widow said today, and if there's any consolation in his death, it's that he died doing something he loved.

James J. Warcup, aeronautics inspector for the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, said both men were experienced pilots.

The plane took off from T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, where the red-and-white single-engine Piper was based, to do a practice approach at the airport but lost power, Warcup said. It is unclear why the plane lost power.

Both men have been in the Rhode Island Wing of the Civil Air Patrol; Tetreault was the wing's logistics officer.

Mrs. Zoglio says her husband was flying the plane.

Zoglio was an instrument rated pilot, meaning he was capable of flying in weather conditions of low cloud ceilings and poor visibility. Zoglio and Tetreault flew about once a week so Zoglio could maintain his rating for instrument flight rules, Mrs. Tetreault said. Zoglio would essentially fly "blind," and Tetreault was his safety pilot, maintaining visibility, Mrs. Tetreault said. "I know he trusted Bob," she said.

Mrs. Zoglio declined to speak further about her husband after confirming his death this morning.

Tetreault had worked at the Airport Corporation as a senior builder, said Mrs. Tetreault, who also works there as a procurement specialist.

Tetreault loved planes and always wanted to fly, and he finally attained his pilot's license seven years ago at the North Central State Airport, Mrs. Tetreault said. She also became a pilot, at her husband's insistence. He wanted to make sure that she'd be able to take over the plane if something happened to them while they flew together.

Although they didn't own a plane, Mrs. Tetreault said they would often rent a Diamond 40 from the Warwick airport and take trips, including a favorite flight to Pittsfield, Mass., to view the Berkshires and stop in for dinner, she said.

"Ronnie was a very good pilot," Mrs. Tetreault said. "He actually loved to fly at night. He said he felt being up there at night, when it was quiet, was peaceful and serene."

The couple have been active in the Rhode Island Pilots Association, where Mrs. Tetreault was recently elected president.

While they settled in Glocester, the Tetreaults are both Pawtucket natives. They met when Tetreault moved next to her childhood home in the city's Fairlawn neighborhood, Mrs. Tetreault said. They celebrated their 35th anniversary last Tuesday, having dinner with family.

Since the crash, friends and family, pilots and members of the Civil Air Patrol have called with their condolences, she said. "Ronnie was very well liked," Mrs. Tetreault said.

-- Reported by Journal staff writer Amanda Milkovits and Maria Armental

Journal photo / Bob Breidenbach

Investigators continue to work the scene of a fatal plane crash that occured last night near the North Central State Airport. The plane crashed between Clark Road and Limerock Road and claimed the lives of two.

The pilot of a single-engine plane that crashed yesterday in Smithfield killing both occupants was Robert A. Zoglio Jr., his widow, Donna J. Zoglio, confirmed this morning.

Zoglio, 43, of 207 New London Turnpike, Richmond, was the owner of record of the plane, according to a bulletin from the Federal Aviation Administration.

The state Medical Examiner's Office has yet to release the names of the pilot and passenger.

James J. Warcup, aeronautics inspector for the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, said both men were experienced pilots from Rhode Island.

The plane took off from T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, where the red-and-white single-engine Piper was based, to do a practice approach on North Central State Airport in Smithfield but lost power, Warcup said. It is unclear why the plane lost power.

The plane crashed about 5 p.m. yesterday roughly a half-mile southeast of the runway at North Central State Airport. The two were pronounced dead at the scene.

-- With staff and Associated Press reports

BOSTON (AP) -- The former owners of a New Bedford, Mass., leather goods factory raided last year by immigration agents will pay $850,000 to settle a lawsuit filed by workers who claimed the company violated various wage laws, attorneys for the former employees said today.

Michael Bianco Inc. will pay 764 former employees unpaid wages and overtime pay to settle the lawsuit filed in May 2007, which alleged the company failed to pay workers for overtime and unfairly deducted pay from workers' pay checks.

In March 2007, immigration agents raided Michael Bianco and arrested 361 workers, mostly women from Central America, on federal immigration charges. Earlier this month, company owner Francesco Insolia pleaded guilty to harboring and concealing illegal immigrants.
Immigrant advocates criticized the raid for separating families and leaving children without proper care. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the raid was properly handled.

According to the lawsuit, Bianco tried to avoid paying overtime by making it appear workers were being paid by two separate companies.

>> Continue reading: New Bedford factory raided by ICE settles workers' suit

AAA is forecasting the first decline in Thanksgiving travel since 2002.

About 41 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home Thanksgiving weekend, a decrease of 1.4 percent, or 600,000 travelers, from last year's total of 41.6 million, according to estimates by AAA Southern New England.

"The overall state of the economy continues to present real challenges for some Americans looking to travel this Thanksgiving," said Lloyd P. Albert, AAA Southern New England's senior vice president of public and government affairs and new business development. "However, the desire to spend time with family, combined with significantly lower gasoline prices than earlier this year, will provide a strong impetus for many Americans to travel this holiday season."

Gas prices in Rhode Island have dropped for nine straight weeks, falling to an average of $2.109 yesterday, according to AAA. The price peaked above the $4 mark over the summer.

A year ago, the average price here was $3.079.

Thanksgiving would be the fourth travel holiday in a row, after Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Labor Day, with a year-to-year decline in the number of travelers, according to AAA.

>> Continue reading: AAA: Fewer travelers will hit the road for Thanksgiving

PROVINCETOWN, Mass. (AP) -- A Provincetown volunteer firefighter has been cited for totaling an expensive fire truck he was driving during a test.

The police say 21-year-old Elias Martinez was cited yesterday for speeding, failure to use caution at an intersection and operating a vehicle negligently.

Investigators say Martinez was driving the truck at around 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 9 when the truck's front wheel hit a curb and flipped over about four times. Martinez and a female passenger were treated at a hospital for minor injuries.

The town's only ladder truck was bought used in 1995 for $5,000, but the town spent $165,000 to have it specially outfitted to deal with the town's narrow streets.

Officials say they hope to use $350,000 in insurance money to replace the truck.

(Information from: Cape Cod Times, http://www.capecodonline.com )

On this day in 1978, more than 900 people died in Jonestown, Guyana, after Peoples Temple cult leader Jim Jones urged them to kill themselves by drinking cyanide-laced grape punch. Jones died of a bullet wound to the head; whether it was self-inflicted is unknown.

Read more about today in history.

Today's front page features coverage of a police sweep that netted 18 suspects, including the arrests of two longtime alleged mob associates.

The investigation led the police to East Providence, where they've been digging for the body of a reputed mob enforcer killed 30 years ago by one of the men arrested in the sweep.

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

By Talia Buford
Journal staff writer

Joseph Crowley, the West Warwick man found dead in his cell at the Adult Correctional Institutions in June, died of undetermined causes, a spokeswoman from the state Department of Health said today.

"With all of the tests run," said Annemarie Beardsworth, "We haven't found any cause of death. ... The tests did not show anything conclusive."

Crowley, 29, was pronounced dead shortly after a guard performing a routine check found him unresponsive in his cell. He suffered from depression and post-traumatic stress disorder after losing his home to fires in 2000 and 2007, according to family members. He had been a patient at a methadone clinic for about a year.

Family members, at the time of Crowley's death, said that he had been without his medication in the days since he was arrested.

Crowley was arrested as a part of a drug trafficking investigation by the West Warwick Police Special Investigations Unit. Officers found marijuana, cocaine, drug paraphernalia, a stolen gun and $352 in cash when they searched Crowley's home. He was charged with possession of cocaine, possession with the intent to deliver marijuana and possessing stolen goods, all felonies.

The lack of a conclusive cause of death is an "uncommon finding" said Beardsworth, though she did not know how often they occurred in the past. She said no other autopsies have been inconclusive to her knowledge during the last six months.

No foul play or suicide was suspected in Crowley's death. The Rhode Island State Police and the Corrections Department's Special Investigations units were investigating the incident.

Gas prices in Rhode Island have dropped another 13 cents, marking the ninth straight week that prices have fallen, according to AAA Southern New England.

The average price for a gallon of regular, unleaded gasoline is $2.109 at the self-service pump, according to AAA's weekly survey.

The average price has fallen by almost $1.50 per gallon in the past nine weeks, AAA says.

A year ago, the average price here was $3.079.

Diesel fuel dropped 19 cents to $3.09.

On this day in 1800, Congress held its first session in Washington, D.C., in the partially completed Capitol building.

Read more about today in history.

Look for increasing clouds today with a high near 49 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

Tonight should drop to about 28 degrees with a north wind of 3 to 9 mph.

Colder weather moves in for most of the week with highs in the 30s.

Read more weather and get updates at projo.com/weather.

A Brown geologist is among those searching for water on the moon.

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

BOSTON -- The Rhode Island Mall in Warwick has paid a $36,100 fine for violating federal regulations regarding the storage and handling of PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls, the Environmental Protection Agency announced today.

PCBs are suspected carcinogens and exposure to them can also cause liver problems and skin rashes, according to the EPA.

An EPA complaint alleged that the mall engaged in unauthorized use and discharge of PCBs in several freight elevators in violation of the federal Toxic Substances Control Act, according to the EPA.

PCB contamination was found in the pits under the four freight elevators at the mall, and PCB oil was found at levels exceeding 50 parts per million in the hydraulic fluids at each elevator location, the EPA said.

As part of a settlement, the Rhode Island Mall will remediate the PCB contamination in the elevator bays and will come into compliance with federal PCB regulations.

Highly toxic polychlorinated biphenyls were commonly used in hydraulics, such as elevators, before use of PCBs was banned in the U.S. in 1978, according to the EPA. The EPA says owners of buildings with elevators need to make sure that their elevator oil does not contain PCBs.

Journal photo/ Bill Murphy
Actor Joe Pantoliano greets a fan at Crossroads Rhode Island as he helps the Partnership for Prescription Assistance spread the word about free or low-cost prescriptions. Behind "Joey Pants" is the "Help Is Here Express."

By Karen Lee Ziner
Journal staff writer

PROVIDENCE -- Talk-show host and motivational speaker Montel Williams and actor Joey Pantoliano said today they are painfully aware of the need for costly prescription drugs - medications that many in the audience at Crossroads Rhode Island are unable to access or afford.

Williams, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, and Pantoliano, Emmy-award winning actor who played mobster "Ralphie Cifaretto" on The Sopranos and who struggles with depression, accompanied the "Help is Here Express" bus tour, part of a nationwide effort sponsored by America's pharmaceutical research companies, known as Partnership for Prescription Assistance.

PPA raises awareness of patient assistance programs and "the need to effectively address the rising and alarming rates of chronic disease."

The "Help is Here" bus tour came to Providence in October 2007, and to date has helped nearly 40,000 people in Rhode Island, said Ken Johnson, senior vice president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

The bus is staffed by trained specialists who help uninsured people access information on hundreds of patient assistance programs, including those that provide brand-name and generic prescription drugs.

People also lined up at the big orange "Help is Here" bus. For more information visit the Partnership for Prescription Assistance website at www.pparx.org, or call the toll-free phone number, 1-888-4PPA-NOW.

>> Continue reading: Celebrities on bus tour offer help with prescriptions

BOSTON (AP) -- The state's highest court has ruled that the parents of a store clerk stabbed by a shoplifter he confronted cannot sue the store for wrongful death.

The parents of Cristian Giambrone sued Massachusetts CVS Pharmacy LLC, which owns the Boston store that employed the high school student. He was fatally stabbed in February 2004 as he confronted Daniel Rogers outside the store. Rogers had stolen several tubes of toothpaste. He's now serving a life sentence for first degree murder.

The Supreme Judicial Court said in its decision that the lawsuit was barred by a provision in the state workers' compensation law that prohibits lawsuits by workers against employers for work-related injuries.

Richard Campbell, an attorney for Giambrone's parents, told The Boston Globe that the decision was "terribly unfair."

BOSTON (AP) -- The captain of a fishing trawler that capsized 115 miles east of Cape Cod remains missing.

A Coast Guard cutter searched through the night and into Friday morning for the captain of New Bedford-based Costa & Corvo.

A Coast Guard spokeswoman says trouble was reported on the 71-foot vessel just after midnight Thursday. The trawler's sister vessel, the Mary K, was about two miles away and rescued three crew members from the water but was unable to locate the captain.

The boat's owner, Carlos Rafael, told The Standard-Times of New Bedford that the missing man was Antonio Mesquita. The three rescued crew members were not seriously hurt.

Mesquita's daughter, Sandra Silveirinha, described her father as "a strong man, inside and out."