NORTH SMITHFIELD, R.I. -- A pedestrian was killed Friday morning when she was struck by a minivan on Route 146 north.
How the woman ended up in the middle of the right lane, where she was hit, is something that investigators are still trying to determine, said State Police Capt. James [...]
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Where there's smoke, there's ....
Just after midnight, firefighters on Engine 11 were riding back to the station after handling a rescue call when they caught the scent of something burning in the West End, said acting Battalion Chief Jeffrey Varone.
They rode around until they found the source [...]
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- First, she veered to one side of the street and drove a minivan through a chain-link fence.
Then, the woman veered to the other side -- this time backing the minivan straight through another chain-link fence and into a house where two families were sleeping, said acting Battalion [...]
WARWICK, R.I. -- The Warwick police have announced Friday morning that they will be charging a veteran federal prosecutor -- Gerard B. Sullivan, an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Rhode Island -- with an additional charge of driving under the influence of alcohol after an arrest early Thanksgiving [...]
Here are some of the stories on The Providence Journal front page Friday:
Of eight people charged by the Warwick police with refusing to take a chemical breath test over the Thanksgiving weekend, federal prosecutor Gerard B. Sullivan was the only one who wasn't also charged' [...]
Live local radar
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Expect a mostly sunny day Friday with a high temperature near 56 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.
The wind will blow from the west at 5 to 9 mph.
Clouds will move in tonight, and the temperature will drop to [...]
On the local front:
A year ago today:
Four years after he and his girlfriend took turns beating her 3-year-old nephew Thomas "T.J." Wright for leaving a mess on the living room rug, a jury convicts Gilbert Delestre of second-degree murder and conspiracy. Delestre displayed no emotion as the jury returned [...]
SMITHFIELD, R.I. -- Elie Wiesel, the author, poet and activist whose insights as a Holocaust survivor have helped to inspire millions of Jews and non-Jews alike, told an audience at Bryant University Thursday he still dreads the thought that the world may one day lose its memory.
Is it possible, [...]
By Michael P. McKinney
Journal staff writer
LINCOLN, R.I. -- The School Committee voted Thursday night to close the Fairlawn Early Learning Center elementary school, hours after the superindendent said a new round of projected state-aid cuts have forced her to drop a proposal for districtwide full-day kindergarten.
By Michael P. McKinney
Journal Staff Writer
LINCOLN, R.I. -- Lincoln school officials are abandoning a proposal to extend kindergarten instruction to full-day after learning the state is projecting to cut state aid to the district.
However, the district will move forward with plans to reconfigure elementary schools under a "neighborhood" [...]
In an unprecedented move, more than 50 teachers, students and alumni implored state education leaders to save Hope High School, once one of the state's worst high schools, from being dismantled piece by piece.
Supt. Tom Brady is imposing a six-period day upon all of the city's high [...]
WASHINGTON -- As the military's top civilian and uniformed leaders continued Thursday to defend and explain President Obama's new Afghanistan strategy, Rep. James R. Langevin posed a question about the plan that has weighed on him since Mr. Obama announced it Tuesday night.
How is it that the rise [...]
BARRINGTON, R.I. -- A freshman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill remains in critical condition after being diagnosed with swine flu more than a week ago, said a spokeswoman for University of North Carolina Hospitals, Chapel Hill.
Lillian Claire Chason, a 2009 Barrington high school graduate who [...]
WOONSOCKET, R.I. -- The police are still searching for a third suspect involved in the armed robbery last Friday at a Taco Bell at 1500 Diamond Hill Rd.
Using the license plate number noted by a witness, detectives tracked down the getaway car and located two of the alleged robbers [...]
CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. -- Bruce Corrigan, chairman of the board of directors of the Wyatt Detention Facility, announced Thursday the suspensions from duty of Wayne Salisbury, warden, and Tammy Novo, chief financial officer.
The suspensions with pay, effective immediately, come in the aftermath of a negative review of facility [...]
NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Firefighters returned to the firehouse on Douglas Avenue Thursday morning, a little more than 24 hours after Mayor Charles A. Lombardi tried to permanently close the building as part of a cost-cutting consolidation.
"We're back to normal," said North Providence Fire Chief Alfred Bertoncini.
The U.S. Census Bureau is looking to hire as many as 3,000 Rhode Islanders to help with the 2010 census.
"We want to make sure everybody is counted," said Carol A. Hastings, manager of the Census Bureau's Providence office. "This count is used for many, many things." Besides determining how' [...]
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Bright Night Providence, an arts-oriented festival that is billed as the state's largest New Year's Eve celebration, is cutting expenses and making emergency appeals for major donations after losing city funding, according to Festival Director Adam G. Gertsacov.
The city normally covers about one-third of the festival's' [...]
BOSTON -- A federal judge Thursday rejected disbarred Providence lawyer John M. Cicilline's request that his prison term be cut short and he immediately be released to a halfway house.
U.S. District Judge Joseph L. Tauro accepted a magistrate judge's recommendation that Cicilline's bid for early release be dismissed on [...]
Judge David Mc Intyre looks over the dachshunds in ring 5 Thursday morning, the first day of competition at the Bay Colony Dog Show at the Rhode Island Convention Center. Providence Journal photo / Steve Szydlowski
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Ch. Tonan-Hope's R U Kiddin' Me, the [...]
Journal photo/ Mary Murphy
Dan Weidman, a Johnson & Wales University student from Worcester, enjoys the record-warm December weather as he runs along the Blackstone Boulevard path with other runners.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Once upon a time a successful deer hunter could take [...]
BOSTON -- Governor Carcieri on Thursday urged an acceleration in the development of the nation's offshore wind resources.
Speaking at a wind industry conference, he said that for too long the focus in the United States has been on land-based wind power in the Midwest and not on the potentially vast [...]
EAST LYME, Conn. (AP) -- A Rhode Island woman has pleaded not guilty to a charge of embezzling almost $335,000 from the company that runs East Lyme's school lunch program.
Authorities say Westerly resident Beverly Howard needed to repay about $382,000 in gambling losses, mostly at Foxwoods Resort Casino.
She pleaded not [...]
Th East Providence school district has developed the "coin of excellence to recognize outstanding acts or years of service.
EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- To reward outstanding acts or years of service, the school district developed a "coin of excellence."
The first recipient is Patricia "Patty" Streit, whom" [...]
JOHNSTON, R.I. -- A flurry of calls came in to the Rhode Island State Police Thursday at 1:59 a.m. -- reporting a driver going the wrong way on Route 295 north in the high-speed lane.
Some callers reported the vehicle was traveling about 20 miles per hour, sort of "hugging" [...]
Trees have been downed Thursday morning by strong winds in Johnston and Scituate, according to the police in those towns.
In Scituate, about half a dozen trees have fallen on area roads -- three on Tunk Hill Road, one on Route 6 and another on Central Pike, according to the [...]
North Kingstown isn't the only area in Rhode Island affected by power failures.
National Grid reports that 9,499 electric customers were affected by 93 power failures around the state of Rhode Island at 7:45 a.m. Thursday.
The power failures are greatest in Providence County, with 5,064 of its 261,070 customers' [...]
Journal photo/ Mary Murphy
The Fox Point Hurricane Barrier was closed earlier Thursday morning in anticipation of high tides coupled with heavy rains from the storm that blew through the area early today.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- In the wake of a storm that [...]
On the local front:
A year ago today:
The state Supreme Court upholds the second-degree murder conviction of James "Clyde" Gillespie, whom authorities say strangled his wife, bundled her corpse in cloth and kept it in a crawlspace behind a padlocked closet. Gillespie's appeal asserted the trial judge erred by instructing [...]
A Rhode Island truck driver was part of a New Jersey accident early Tuesday when a woman suffering from Alzheimer's stopped her car in a high-speed lane and it was struck by other vehicles and burst into flames.
The woman, Ellen Liedtka, 67, was pronounced dead at the scene, which was [...]
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- As weather forecasters predict a wet and windy Thursday, punctuated by astronomical high tides, city and state emergency officials have responded with a few safety precautions for the Ocean State.
Among them: The closing of the hurricane barrier at Fox Point in Providence overnight to protect [...]
EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- In exchange for job security, school custodians and maintenance workers have agreed to less sick time, higher health-insurance contributions, six furlough days and several other concessions that will save the school district more than $1 million over the next three years.
The City Council accepted the [...]
EAST GREENWICH, R.I. -- Two Massachusetts fugitives, 19 and 15, were arrested early Wednesday as they tried to put gas into a stolen car that had run out of gas, East Greenwich police said Wednesday afternoon.
Late Tuesday night, a Warwick police officer reported a disabled vehicle at Exit 8A, on [...]
By Mark Reynolds
Journal staff writer
NORTH PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Mayor Charles M. Lombardi surprised the local firefighters union Wednesday morning by shutting down the Douglas Avenue Fire Station in Geneva 24 hours sooner than fire fighters had expected.
By mid-afternoon, the union was in Superior Court seeking an injunction to [...]
By John Curran
Associated Press Writer
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- Richard Phillips, the ship captain toasted as a hero after he was taken captive by Somali pirates, ignored repeated warnings last spring to keep his freighter at least 600 miles off the African coast because of the heightened risk of attack, [...]
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Shotgun deer hunting season on the mainland begins Saturday, the state Department of Environmental Management announced.
Deer can be hunted in both state land management areas and private land (with written permission from the land owner) through Dec. 13.
From Dec. 14 through Dec. 20, shotgun season continues [...]
WARWICK, RI -- A one-block stretch of Jefferson Boulevard will be closed for three nights next week as construction on the intermodal facility linked to the airport continues.
City and T.F. Green Airport officials said that motorists should be advised that the Jefferson Boulevard from Kilvert Street to [...]
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -- Harvard University's law school has announced it will stop offering free tuition to students who opt to go into public- service law after graduation.
Dean Martha Minow said in an e-mail this week to students and faculty that the school will suspend its Public Service Initiative [...]
NORTH SMITHFIELD, R.I. -- The high school was locked down for about two hours Wednesday and munitions-sniffing dogs were called in after four rounds of ammunition were found on a floor, police and school officials said.
North Smithfield Police Capt. Tom R. Lafleur said the ammunition would go in [...]
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) -- A real estate tracking firm says the number of homes sold in Rhode Island went up 20.5 percent in October from the previous year, although prices continued to fall.
The numbers, released Wednesday by The Warren Group, mean it's the fifth month in a row of higher [...]
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- At an event designed to highlight several education initiatives -- including a pilot program that enables low-income students to take college courses while still in high school -- Governor Carcieri and key political and educational leaders are scheduled to gather at Rhode Island College for a [...]
House Speaker William J. Murphy fielded tough questions Wednesday morning from small business leaders demanding to know how the state plans to recruit new companies, what it is doing to promote government efficiencies and whether lawmakers intend to pass "a legitimately balanced budget within the next five years."
Serving as the [...]
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Thousands of dogs are prancing into Providence for one of the largest American Kennel Club dog events in the country. The Bay Colony Dog Show has nearly 5,600 entries in four shows, Thursday through Sunday, in the Rhode Island Convention Center.
U.S. Sen. Jack Reed was among President Obama's advisers watching his speech from the front row at West Point, N.Y., Tuesday night. From left are: National Security Adviser Gen. James Jones; Deputy National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute; Senator Reed; Gen. David Petreaus, the American commander' [...]
At Trinity Rep, less is more when it comes to this year's "A Christmas Carol," says Journal critic Channing Gray. Director Birgitta Victorson has stripped away much of the fluff in this show, he says, and focused instead on telling the story, making this take on the Dickens classic one [...]
CENTRAL FALLS -- An independent audit released this morning is highly critical of the management team at the troubled Donald W Wyatt Detention Facility and it calls for wholesale changes.
The author of the audit, Michael V. Fair, managing member of MVF Consulting, LLC in Danvers, Mass., said that his findings [...]
WARWICK -- The Warwick police chief launched an internal investigation Wednesday into whether his officers acted appropriately early Thanksgiving morning when they charged a veteran federal prosecutor with refusing to submit to a chemical-breath test but not with the more serious, criminal, charge of driving under the influence.
Gerard [...]
Journal file photo/ Kathy Borchers
The owner of the Providence Place mall, General Growth Properties Inc., earlier this year filed the largest U.S. real estate bankruptcy case in history.
CHICAGO (AP) -- General Growth Properties Inc., owner of the Providence Place mall, said Wednesday [...]
By Peter B. Lord
Journal Staff Writer
Many scientists worry that Royal Bengal tigers could become extinct in the wild in 20 years because their numbers have become so depleted by human development. But an expert told several hundred people at the University of Rhode Island Tuesday night there is [...]
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