Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

The severe thunderstorms that pounded the state this afternoon knocked out power to some homes and caused minor damage to others, but no injuries were reported.

In East Providence, the police have reduced traffic to a single lane along Route 195 west due to downed power lines. East bound traffic is not affected. The police expect traffic to be tied up for a few hours and suggest taking alternate routes.

In Scituate, lightning struck two houses and knocked out police radios. The police said houses were hit on Howard Avenue and Ashland Drive, but there were no injuries and damage was minor.

The police communications system was being worked on early this evening, a spokesman said, and the department expected repairs to take effect within an hour. Fire radios were not affected by the storm.

Some houses in the northern part of town lost power.

Jan Raymond of Brandy Brook Road., Chepachet, reported that a "very tall" tree in her yard "got cut in half" by a lightning bolt.

"It was quite intense," she said. "My son and my neighbors saw and heard it." The falling tree missed the waterfront house, she added, and landed between the house and Echo Lake.

Raymond said that her electrical power and telephone service were knocked out by the fast-moving storm.

She said she has gotten used to living in an area prone to lightning strikes.

"This is the fourth time this has happened" to her property," she said. "We had one not too long ago where the wind took the top of a tree off, flipped it around, pierced and stabbed the house, and one of the branches landed on my daughter's pillow. It was a Saturday, but I thought it was a school day, so I had just got her up. We were very lucky."

National Grid is now reporting that there are about 8,200 customers around the state without power as of 5:30 p.m., according to spokeswoman Deborah Drew.

Cranston and Warwick police, so far are reporting lots of flooding and downed tree limbs.

In communities on the East Bay, there are reports of several downed trees, one each on Metacom Avenue and Hope Street, the two main routes through Bristol. The police say the trees have caused traffic backups. Constitution Street in Bristol between Hope and Thames Streets was also closed after a limb took down some wires. Also flooding closed the Broadway underpass in East Providence.

Lisa Vernon-Sparks, with reports from West Bay, North and East Bay bureaus.

PROVIDENCE -- Six adults and one child are temporarily homeless after an early morning fire damaged their Smith Hill home, according to the Fire Department.

The blaze began in the basement of a triple-decker at 87 Lydia St., and was reported to the Fire Department at 2:15 a.m., according to Assistant Fire Chief Michael J. Dillon. When firefighters arrived, all the occupants were out of the building and nobody was injured.

The Rhode Island chapter of the American Red Cross was on hand to help the displaced occupants with temporary lodging and other assistance.

The flames extended into the walls and traveled up to the first and second floors, according to Dillon. There was moderate fire damage to the basement and the first and second floors, and damage from smoke and water throughout, which together with the fact that electrical service was disconnected, left the house uninhabitable.

Firefighters had the blaze under control within 20 minutes.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

-- Journal staff writer Gregory Smith

The collapse this weekend of Wall Street investment bank Bear Stearns will send ripples across the Rhode Island economy, according to two New England business experts interviewed yesterday.

“The easiest way to envision it, it’s kind of like a spider web,” said Mark M. Higgins, dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Rhode Island. “What happens with one piece of the economy will have an effect on somebody else.”

The collapse will make it harder to buy a car, pay off credit cards and finance a college education, according to Higgins and Augustine Faucher, director of macroeconomics at Moody’s Economy.com.

“It’s gotten a lot more difficult to get a loan nowadays,” said Faucher.

The problem is what economic experts refer to as “credit tightening.” Bear Stearns was pulled under by heavy investments in the mortgage industry, which has been strained by soaring foreclosures, especially on sub-prime loans that borrowers can no longer afford.

In part, concern isn’t for the failing loans at Bear Stearns, because they have already done their damage. “There’s a lot of bad debt out there,” said Faucher. “The problem is we don’t know who’s holding it.”

-- Journal staff writer Paul Edward Parker

>> Continue reading: Bear Stearns fallout rippling through R.I.

PROVIDENCE — Jury selection continued today in the trial of seven Narragansett Indians charged with resisting and fighting with the state police as they raided a tribal smoke shop in July 2003.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers appeared to be nearing a complete jury in Providence County Superior Court, but Judge Susan E. McGuirl replaced several members of the 16-person panel this afternoon after they were challenged by attorneys involved in the case.

A bank branch manager was released after she told the court she was concerned by TV footage that showed apparent excessive force by the state police and tribal members during the raid. A Central Falls man who said he had many close friends on that city’s police force was also released.

Lawyers are quizzing each prospective juror about issues ranging from their position on the Narragansett Indian tribe’s casino quest to whether they could accept defense arguments that state troopers might lie under oath.

The state police executed a search warrant on July 14, 2003, to stop the Narragansetts from selling tax-free cigarettes from the roadside store in Charlestown. The confrontation turned into a violent scuffling match. Seven adult tribal members, including Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas, are now on trial for misdemeanor charges of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, obstruction and assault.

Prospective jurors will continue to be questioned tomorrow morning.

-- Journal staff writer Katie Mulvaney

Governor and Mrs. Carcieri speak to participants at an antiabortion rally today at the State House. Dozens of people attended the rally, which was sponsored by the Rhode Island State Right to Life Committee.

Journal photo / M. Charles Bakst

Are you living in a house divided, a die-hard Patriots fan living with a family member who is rooting for the Giants?

If so, can you laugh about it, or will you be watching the Super Bowl on separate TVs — maybe even in separate places?. Send your stories — please be sure to include your name, address and daytime phone number — to sendus@projo.com. We’ll publish the best of the bunch the the day before the Big Game.

The rising cost of milk, eggs, meat and produce are contributing to the biggest jump in food prices in 17 years. Grocery bills are up and restaurant diners will likely face even higher prices on menus.

How are you dealing with food costs? Are you finding creative ways to save when shopping and cooking? What’s the strategy for dining out? Do you go out less or select different restaurants based on cost. Or has nothing changed?

Let’s share with each other. And if you have any cost-cutting recipes send them along, too.

E-mail to food editor Gail Ciampa at gciampa@projo.com. We’ll take submissions until Monday, Jan. 21 and they’ll be posted on www.projo.com/food as they come in. A wrap of your responses and advice will run in Lifebeat Food on Jan. 30.

The rising cost of milk, eggs, meat and produce are contributing to the biggest jump in food prices in 17 years. Grocery bills are up and restaurant diners will likely face even higher prices on menus.

How are you dealing with food costs? Are you finding creative ways to save when shopping and cooking? What’s the strategy for dining out? Do you go out less or select different restaurants based on cost. Or has nothing changed?

Let’s share with each other. And if you have any cost-cutting recipes send them along, too.

E-mail to food editor Gail Ciampa at gciampa@projo.com. We’ll take submissions until Monday, Jan. 21 and they’ll be posted on www.projo.com/food as they come in. A wrap of your responses and advice will run in Lifebeat Food on Wednesday, Jan. 30.

A Rhode Island dance instructor was arrested at his home in Massachusetts last weekend and charged with raping a 15-year-old girl, authorities said today.

The instructor, Keith L. Sampson, 29, who had worked at Denise's Dance Studio in Johnston, was arrested soon after the police went to his home in South Easton, Mass., and found the alleged victim, said Easton Deputy Police Chief Allen R. Krajcik.

The girl, a student from a dance school in Rhode Island, was taken to Brockton Hospital where she was treated and later released, according to Krajcik. Krajcik said he was unable to specify the name of the particular Rhode Island dance school where the victim had been a student.

Sampson has worked at Denise’s Dance Studio at 80 Greenville Ave. in Johnston.

According to the police, Sampson brought the girl to his home at 34 Pinebrook Lane, in South Easton, gave her alcohol and then sexually assaulted her. The girl sent a text message to a friend in Rhode Island who reported the incident to Warwick police, Sampson said.

Easton police received word around 2:30 a.m. Saturday and immediately sent several officers to Sampson’s home, he said. Sampson was also charged with drugging an individual for the purpose of sexual intercourse.

The dance studio’s owner, Denise DiPippo, told Channel 12 that she was shocked to learn of Sampson’s involvement in the case.

“I’m a very concerned mom,” she said in a report posted on station’s Web site. “I teach each student like a mom would teach their own. Thirty years I’ve been in the business and this never happened to me. He fooled everyone. All the kids loved him and he turned out to be something he wasn’t. He put a false picture out to all these children. I hope it doesn’t happen to anyone else. I don’t ever want to see him again.”

Sampson was arraigned in Taunton District Court and held on $50,000 bail, Krajcik said.

-- Journal staff writer Mark Reynolds