Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

BOSTON -- Officials say the Massachusetts public pension fund lost about 13 percent of its value or about $5 billion in October.

The Pension Reserves Investment Trust has lost about 27 percent of its value this year and was worth about $40 billion as of Oct. 31.

The state Treasurer's Office says the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index fell 17 percent in October and is down 33 percent for the year, while the average large pension fund has lost about 28 percent.

--- The Associated Press

MOST PEACEFUL PLACE: Staff writer G. Wayne Miller is looking for the most peaceful place in Rhode Island or nearby Massachusetts, and someone to take him there for a story and video. Do you know of such a place -- a place of tranquility in these worrisome times -- and would you be Miller's guide on the journey there?

Write him at gwmiller@projo.com

By C. Eugene Emery Jr.

Journal staff writer

BARRINGTON - The School Committee and the teachers union have agreed to a new three-year contract requiring most teachers to pay more for their medical insurance and raising pay by 2 to 2.95 percent annually.

The pact, which doesn't take effect until Sept. 1, also says that both sides will consider renegotiating salary scales if there is a severe cut in state aid. The talks would be designed to avoid layoffs or cuts in programs.

"We hope it doesn't come to that," said Patrick Sullivan, president of the 290-member teachers union, NEA Barrington. "Getting through these difficult times requires some collaboration with the administration, and that's something we have always been receptive to."

School Committee Chairman Patrick A. "Buzz" Guida said the agreement means Barrington teachers will be paying 20 percent of their health insurance premiums, the highest among teachers in the area. Currently, only new teachers pay that amount. Those hired before Sept. 1, 2006 have been paying 15 percent.

With no education funding formula in the state and Rhode Island having the dubious distinction of having the worst economy in the U.S., "you have a perfect storm," Sullivan said this afternoon. "We felt this was something we could work with over the next three years."

The Navy's top officer today gave a ringing endorsement of the submarine program, calling it a ``killer arrow'' among the weapons available to commanders.

``I love submarines,'' Adm. Gary Roughead, the Chief of Naval Operations, told a convention of submariners, contractors and others close to the industry, joking that some of his colleagues in the surface Navy ``think I have gone over to the dark side.''

But Roughead, a rare CNO who has commanded both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets, observed on a serious note that some people ``think that submarines are a thing of the past.''

He said skeptics view submarines as ``cold war relics'' that have outlived the usefulness. ``I am not in their camp,'' Roughead told the annual symposium of the Naval Submarine League in Northern Virginia.

Roughead went on to allude in general terms to the versatility of submarines, which are uniquely able to operate without detection on missions of intelligence-gathering, special forces warfare and long-distance missile attacks.

As a commander in the Pacific, Roughead suggested that he relied heavily on submarines, calling them ``the killer arrow in the quiver,'' that offers ``options and capabilities that exist nowhere else.''

Roughead offered particular praise for the small, new class of former ballistic missile subs that have been overhauled in recent years to accommodate large payloads of conventional missiles, as well as special forces units.

The Navy leader spoke at a moment of growing challenges for the Navy, which faces heavy budgetary pressures even as such potential adversaries such as China expand their undersea fleets.

PROVIDENCE _ The state Water Resources Board today fired its general manager Juan Mariscal.

William Penn, the new water board chairman, and J. Michael Sullivan, director of the state Department of Environmental Management, who sits on the board, instigated the action. The vote was 5 to 4.

Penn, Mariscal's leading critic, said the board was not doing enough to develop new water supplies.

Mariscal's defenders said that Mariscal did a good job, adding that water supply efforts will now be hampered because today's action cuts the beleaguered agency down to a staff of just three. It had nine employees three years ago.

One board member, retired state Planner Daniel Varin, called the dismissal an "outrage."

Robert A. Urciuoli holds his wife's hand as he leaves court this morning after a jury convicted the former Roger Williams Medical Cente president and CEO of all 36 counts against him.
Video: Watch a video of responses from Urciuoli's lawyer and Frances Driscoll's daughter after the verdict Providence Journal photo by Steve Szydlowski

PROVIDENCE -- A jury this morning convicted former Roger Williams Medical Center president and CEO Robert A. Urciuoli of all 36 counts against him, but acquitted former vice president Frances P. Driscoll of the one count against her.

The pair were accused of stealing the honest services of former state Sen. John A. Celona of North Providence, hiring Celona to do political favors for the medical center.

Urciuoli was convicted of one count of conspiracy and 35 counts of honest-services mail fraud. Urciuoli remained stoic as the jury announced its verdict. One of his lawyers held his hand against Urciuoli's back.

Driscoll was acquitted of the only charge against her -- one count of aiding and abetting the alleged conspiracy. Family members gasped when the jury cleared the 69-year-old grandmother who shattered her arm when she fell on the courthouse steps Sept 22, delaying the trial for almost a week.

The jury had started its fifth day of deliberations when it reached its verdict.

Outside the courthouse this morning, an attorney for Urciuoli said he was disappointed with the verdict but confident it would be overturned on appeal.

The jury's verdict "is completely against the evidence that was presented in this case," said attorney Howard Cooper of Boston.

Urciuoli stood near Cooper. He was hugging his wife, the former Donna Paolino. The Urciuolis declined comment.

Cooper emphasized trial testimony that James McGuirk, an attorney for the Roger Williams Medical Center, had said that it was OK for Urciuoli to hire Celona. He noted there was also a state Ethics Commission opinion supporting his legal advice.

Cooper said he's confident the verdict will be overturned, as it was the first time.

This was a retrial for both Urciuoli and Driscoll. They were convicted in their original trials in October 2006, but the convictions were overturned on appeal. Celona testified at that trial, but did not testify at the retrial, which started with opening statements on Sept. 9.

U.S. Attorney Robert Clark Corrente, also speaking in front of the federal courthouse, said the jury made the right decision regarding Urciuoli.

In regards to Driscoll, he said, "I'm not disappointed. We respect what the jury comes up with."

He commended the two prosecutors: Luis A. Matos and Dulce Donovan, both assistant U.S. attorneys.

Corrente was asked whether not having Celona testify made a difference. "I don't think it played an awfully big role," he said.

Evidence presented in the trial showed that Urciuoli hired Celona despite the concerns of Driscoll and others at the hospital. The prosecution introduced faxes and e-mails from Celona to Driscoll in which the senator said he had worked to kill or promote certain legislation.

Celona was hired by an assisted living center affliated with the hospital, The Village at Elmhurst, and was paid $260,000 from 1998 through early 2004.

Prosecutors say that Celona took steps to kill bills deemed harmful to Roger Williams and to advance legislation that Urciuoli considered favorable.

Celona worked to kill legislation that would have prohibited hospital officials from serving on the board of a for-profit hospital in the event of a merger, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Prosecutors said Celona also helped Urciuoli pressure medical insurance companies to increase their reimbursements to Roger Williams for health care services.

But the defense countered that there was nothing illegal in the relationship and that Celona, who was paid between $700 and $1,000 a week, exaggerated his claims. Celona is in prison, serving a 30-month sentence after pleading guilty to federal fraud charges.

Urciuoli remains free on bond pending sentencing, which is scheduled for March 6, 2009.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, conspiracy and 17 of the mail fraud counts carry maximum penalties of five years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine. Eighteen of the mail fraud counts have maximum penalties of 20 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine.

In the original trial, Urciuoli was convicted of all the counts against him, while Driscoll was convicted of one count.

The two appealed the convictions, their lawyers arguing that Senior U.S. District Judge Ernest C. Torres gave the jury instructions that allowed them to convict Celona for work he did that was legal.

The First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston overturned the convictions in January 2007.

Both were free on bail pending the retrial.

-- Journal staff writer W. Zachary Malinowski

projo.com photo/ Brandie Jefferson
Providence firefighters extinguished a fire at a three-story house at 610 Union Avenue this morning.

PROVIDENCE -- An early morning fire in the Silver Lake neighborhood filled a three-story house with smoke. All the residents escaped safely.

Firefighters arrived at 610 Union Avenue at 7:19 this morning. It took several companies about 45 minutes to put the flames out.

The fire appears to have started on the first floor.

Amara Ezeamama, who owns the house with her husband, Bright Onye, said she woke up to the smell of smoke, and the sounds of their house being destroyed.

"We heard the cracking of windows before the fire department got here," Ezeamama said.

She woke Onye, who had just gotten home from work.

"I was fast asleep when my wife started waking me up and telling me "'there's smoke, there's smoke,'" he said.

"I quickly got up, looked at our apartment; there was smoke. I went down to the second floor, there's more smoke. I was like, 'where is my tenant?'"

The tenant, Pedro Cabral, who lived on the second floor, said the smoke was "really thick" when he got out.

He said he wanted to go back in to get his stuff, but, he said, "I knew better." Cabral said this is the second time he's had to escape from a burning house.

-- projo.com staff writer Brandie M. Jefferson

Today in history: In 1892, Andrew and Abby Borden were axed to death in their home in Fall River, Mass.

Lizzie Borden, Andrew Borden's daughter from a previous marriage, was accused of the killings, though she was later acquitted.

A.H. Belo Corp. of Dallas, Texas, whose holdings include The Providence Journal and Dallas Morning News, plans to reduce company-wide employment by the equivalent of 500 full-time jobs -- about 14 percent of the company's work force.

Howard G. Sutton, publisher, president and CEO of The Providence Journal, today told editors that the staff reductions here would be less than 5 percent.

If the company does not reach the target number through a voluntary severance program to be completed by mid-September, "an involuntary reduction-in-force will be necessary,'' the company said in a letter to shareholders issued today.

A.H. Belo also said it also will cut marketing and overall promotion expense, as well as travel costs and other discretionary expenses, and reduce the width of the newspapers in Providence and Riverside, Calif.

Robert W. Decherd, A.H. Belo's chairman, president and chief executive officer, said in a letter to employees today that these and other steps are a response to "the unprecedentedly adverse business environment facing the newspaper industry -- and the related, negative perception of the industry's future prospects.''

The company announced the steps on the same day it posted a second-quarter net loss on a 15-percent drop in revenue.

For the three months ended June 30, A.H. Belo posted a net loss of $3.19 million, or 16 cents a share, compared with a net profit of $12.3 million, or 60 cents a share, for the comparable period a year earlier.

Second-quarter revenue fell 15.1 percent, to $163.25 million.

A.H. Belo is among a number of media companies nationwide that are being affected by a drop in overall advertising revenue as many readers and advertisers migrate to the Internet.

Just before mid-day today, A.H. Belo stock was trading at $6.09, down 31 cents a share.

-- Journal staff writer Neil Downing

Journal reporter G. Wayne Miller is looking to write a story of a bride-to-be's last day as a single woman -- i.e., the day before her wedding.

The story would include still photographs and a video for projo.com. Miller wants to capture this moment on the day before a wedding anytime from the week of Sept. 8 through the end of October.

If interested, please respond to Wayne Miller, gwmiller@projo.com

What male and female Rhode Island high school scholar-athletes will receive this year's Providence Journal High School Honor Roll awards?

Who will be named the 2008 Dick Reynolds Correspondent award winner?

The three scholarship recipients will be revealed Sunday in ProJo Sports and online at hsgametime.com/rhodeisland.

The Providence Journal Honor Roll Girl and Boy will each receive a $5,000 Wendy's/Peter Bennett Scholarship. The Dick Reynolds Correspondent award winner will receive a $5,000 scholarship

State education officials today are expected to celebrate a special “green” certification for a new 367-bed residence hall at Rhode Island College.

The Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education will take part in the celebration at 5 p.m. on the college campus with outgoing RIC president John Nazarian and incoming president Nancy Carriuolo.

The new residence hall is the largest building in Rhode Island to receive the so-called LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. It is also the first residence hall in Rhode Island to earn the designation.

The 127,500-square-foot building was designed by RGB, a Providence-based architecture, engineering and interior design firm.

Energy efficient design is expected to save more than $115,000 annually in heat and air conditioning costs. The building was sited to minimize the clearing of natural vegetation and more than 750,000 tons of trash from the construction work was recycled.

-- Journal environment writer Peter B. Lord

PROVIDENCE -- City schools Supt. Donnie Evans is no longer a finalist for the Cincinnati school district now that the Cincinnati School Board has decided to keep looking.

Evans said he was disappointed but not surprised that the school board decided to launch a new search, adding that the board had told him that it was unhappy with the search firm, Hazard, Young, Attea & Associates. Evans did say, however, that he was talking with another search firm about applying for three other superintendent openings, which he declined to name because of the confidential nature of the searches.

According to The Cincinatti Enquirer, the board decided to re-open recruitment because its members felt that neither finalist would receive a 5-2 majority. The other finalist, Diana Bourisaw of St. Louis, withdrew her candidacy late last month, citing personal reasons, which left Evans as the sole candidate.

“We don’t want our new superintendent to start with a factionalized board,” school board president Eve Bolton told The Enquirer. “We’ve done that before.”

The Cincinatti board is expected to name an interim superintendent July 14.

Meanwhile, Providence’s new superintendent, Thomas Brady, is scheduled to arrive here on July 14. Brady, the interim superintendent of Philadelphia, was hired this winter approximately a week after Evans announced that he would not be seeking a second three-year term in Providence.

Brady spent 25 years in the military before entering the educational field and he has held top administrative positions in Fairfax, Va., and Washington, D.C.

-- Journal staff writer Linda Borg

Repair work is under way on the Henderson Bridge and that means those who wish to cross the bridge on bicycle or on foot must use a sidewalk on the westbound side of the bridge.

The first phase of construction is on the bridge’s eastbound lanes. Cars headed east are limited to one narrow lane, according to a Department of Transportation news release today.

Bicycles and pedestrians are banned from the east side of the bridge during construction. On the westbound side, bicyclists must walk their bikes along the sidewalk and across the span.

The bridge connects Waterman and Angell streets on Providence's East Side to Massasoit Avenue in East Providence.

A detour for bicyclists and pedestrians headed to East Providence is in place from Waterman Street up Butler Avenue to a right on Angell Street, where they can access the sidewalk next to the bridge's westbound lanes.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney

PAWTUCKET -- The Division Street Bridge is being reopened to two-way traffic, seven months after it became one-way, and an elaborate set of detours was put in place, when a weight limit was imposed on part of Route 95.

The bridge, now one-way eastbound, is expected to reopen to two-way traffic Wednesday morning, following a ribbon-cutting ceremony tentatively scheduled for 10 a.m.

State Department of Transportation maintenance crews are busy painting stripes, working on traffic signals and repaving the roadway, Kazem Farhoumand, DOT’s acting chief engineer, said today in an interview.

The work, necessary before two-way traffic is restored to Division Street, has taken longer than expected, Farhoumand said, because of delays by private utility companies relocating wires from utility poles on the city-owned bridge.

The Division Street Bridge has been one-way between George and Prospect streets since Nov. 28, when the state transportation department imposed a 22-ton weight limit -- later lowered to 18 tons -- on the bridges that carry Route 95 over the Pawtucket River.

The weight limit was intended to prolong the life of the bridges, built half a century ago as part of the interstate highway system. The detours imposed as a result of weight limit involved diverting traffic through Pawtucket’s labyrinthine network of streets.

There were concerns, when the detours took effect, that they would cause traffic jams in the city and wear and tear on Division Street Bridge, which was built 130 years ago and rehabilitated in 1985.

But the traffic jams didn’t develop. Most trucks too heavily loaded to cross the Route 95 Pawtucket River Bridges legally detoured onto Route 146 or Route 295.

-- Journal staff writer John Castellucci

PROVIDENCE -- The swirly-shaped compact fluorescent light bulbs have become the darlings of those who care about saving energy and combating climate change, except for one nagging problem.

When they break, they release tiny quantities of highly toxic mercury.

Now, a team from Brown University believes it has developed a solution. It has discovered a material that rapidly absorbs mercury gases and could be used as the packaging for mercury bulbs or as a tool for cleaning up broken bulbs.

Saturday morning we’ll be upgrading the active projo blogs to a new version of the Movable Type software. All blogs will remain available during this process. Afterwards you’ll see a new look and some new features, and we’ll welcome your comments about them.

Staff Writer G. Wayne Miller is looking for candidates for two stories:

FIRST HAIRCUT. Miller seeks a toddler, girl or boy, who’s never had her or his hair cut. Miller and a staff photographer would join the child and parents on the day of the first cut.

LAST DAY AT HOME for a high school graduate who is heading off to college. A student leaving for a distant school is preferable, but not required; the only requirement is that the student will be living away from home. Miller and a staff photographer would be at the student’s home on the last day

If interested, please contact Miller at gwmiller@projo.com

Journal photo / Bill Murphy
Helen Peck, of Cranston, enjoys the belated celebration of Flag Day at the Cranston Senior Center this afternoon. The center had been closed last Saturday, the official Flag Day. Tody, the Cranston police honor guard presented the colors, and there were patriotic songs and readings before lunch.

Stories on the Twin River slot parlor and the murder of a teenager lead today Journal.
Download file

The House Finance has increased the governor's budget for schools by $12.8 million. Check how much money your community will get. Providence got $3.5 million in extra money in the fiscal year starting July 1.

Passenger traffic at T.F. Green Airport declined in April and during the first four months of 2008, compared to similar periods last year, according to statistics released today by the Rhode Island Airport Corporation.

There were 412,471 passengers at Green in April, off .4 percent from April 2007.

For January, February, March and April, 1.50 million passengers used Green. That’s down 1.1 percent from the 1.52 million passengers in the first four months last year.

Southwest Airlines remained the biggest carrier at Green, with 52.4 percent of all passengers at the airport in April. U.S. Airways was the second biggest carrier with 21 percent of all passengers. No other carrier has more than 7 percent.

Projo.com will be down for maintenance early Saturday morning. It is expected that we'll be back up and running by 8 a.m., at the latest. We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope you'll come back later in the day.

The word of the day and the weekend is "rain."

And the National Weather Service in Taunton is pretty sure of itself, 100 percent sure.

The service puts the chance of rain at 70 percent this afternoon, 100 percent tonight and 40 percent Saturday and Sunday.

It looks like a washout. At least it won't be cold. Today's high is forecast to be 63. It could approach 70 tomorrow.

New bridge restrictions and the latest sounding on the Democratic primary lead today's Journal.
Download file

PROVIDENCE –– The state’s largest revenue sources –– income and sales taxes –– are down sharply through the first 10 months of the fiscal year.

This is a further sign that Rhode Island’s fiscal problems are mounting as lawmakers struggle to shape a balanced budget facing the largest deficit in nearly two decades.

Economists reported last week that Rhode Island is one of nine states experiencing an economic recession. State Tax Administrator David M. Sullivan supplied data today detailing the effect of widespread job losses, stagnant wages and weak consumer confidence.

Sales taxes are down $23 million, or 3.1 percent, compared to the same period last year, Sullivan reports, while income taxes are down $9 million, or 1 percent.

Should the trend continue through the next two months, as expected, it would be the first time that the state’s largest two revenue sources collectively fell since the early 1990s.

“As far as I’m concerned we’re in a recession,” Governor Carcieri said in an interview today with the radio station WSAR, 1400 AM.

Journal photo/Bob Thayer
Samira Galvao, the cousin of Helder Tomar, touches his casket today outside the Merrick R. Williams Funeral Home in Pawtucket. Tomar, 19, was shot and killedSaturday after a fight with another teenager in Jenks Park in Central Falls.

PAWTUCKET – Helder Tomar, the first of two teenagers killed in an outbreak of violence in Central Falls last weekend, was laid to rest today in an emotional funeral marked by an eloquent plea for peace.

“My son is leaving me, my good son is leaving me,” Helder’s mother, 55-year-old Virignia Tomar, said over and over again in Creole as friends and family members went up to the coffin to bid farewell to him.

“You’re leaving everybody behind and you have a lot of friends and family around you today,” Mrs. Tomar said.

A tall, distinguished-looking woman whose hair is streaked with gray, Mrs. Tomar emigrated to the country from Cape Verde with her husband, Paulo, in 1990 to make a better life for their seven children.

She kept her composure through most of the hour-long service at the Merrrick R. William Funeral Home on Smithfield Avenue. But when the time came to close the coffin and take her dead son to Mount St. Mary’s Cemetery for burial, she and others in the room began to wail.

Helder Tomar, 19, was shot to death in a fight that broke out last Saturday afternoon in Jenks Park with 19-year-old Anthony Strobert, who has been charge with murder.

The day after the shooting, 16-year Edelmiro Roman of Central Falls was shot down on Dexter Street and and killed.

Police say they believe that Roman, whose family is from Puerto Rico, was killed in retaliation for Tomar’s slaying.

Addressing the crowd of young people who packed the funeral home this morning, lay preacher Marco De Barros called for peace.

-- Journal staff writer John Castellucci

>> Continue reading: A call for peace amid sorrow at shooting victim's funeral

A story on the pope's Mass in Yankee stadium and an inspirational advance on the Boston Marathon lead today's Journal.
Download file

A study by the Pew Charitable Trusts released this week projects that an average of one in 31 homeowners in Rhode Island who took out high-cost mortgages during the real-estate boom will lose their homes to foreclosure, most of them by the end of next year.

Rhode Island’s projected foreclosure rate exceeds the national average of 1 in 33 homeowners, and is higher than any other New England state, according to the study, “Defaulting on the Dream: States Respond to America’s Foreclosure Crisis.’’

Massachusetts’ projected foreclosure rate is forecast at 1 in 48 homeowners. The state with highest projected foreclosure rate — 1 in 11 homeowners— is Nevada.

The projections are for 2007-2011, but the foreclosure are expected “primarily” to occur this year and next year, the study said, when rates on the loans are set to adjust upwards. (The forecasts are for “actual homes lost,” not late payments or foreclosures started but not completed.)

It's playoff time in Boston.

Join the Celtics bandwagon: See photo galleries of the starting five, catch up on team stats and test your knowledge with Providence Journal sports editor Ken Hamwey's Celtics quiz.

The Atlanta series opens Sunday night at the Garden.

Harrison "Harry" Zolnierczyk, a forward with the Brown University hockey team, has pleaded guilty to charges that he secretly made a sex tape, according to a story in The Vancouver Sun. Canadian prosecutors said the surreptitiously recorded video involved an underage girl, and was posted on YouTube.

Zolnierczyk is pleading guilty to secretly recording sexual activity and making available voyeuristic recordings. The "video voyeurism" charges are new in Canada, according to the newspaper story, and there is a lack of sentencing precedent. Prosecutor Gordon Baines told the newspaper that the sentence for Zolniercyzk could be "anywhere from discharge to six months in jail and three years probation."

Prosecutors agreed to stay more serious charges of producing and distributing child pornography, charges which would have carried a minimum jail sentence.

Stories on the Pope's visit and the new Bradley hospital lead today's Journal.

Download file