Archive - News Article
April 10th, 2013
CENTRAL FALLS – Students in the city could soon be wearing the school colors of red and blue on their sleeves — and on their slacks and skirts as well.
Central Falls Rep. Agostinho Silva has introduced legislation to allow Central Falls schools to adopt a dress code requiring school uniforms. Silva said parents approached him several months ago wanting to establish a school uniform policy.
“I told them, I’ll put it in,” Silva said, adding that the parents “are looking to put everybody at the same level, dress-wise, when they go to school.
April 9th
CENTRAL FALLS – Police Tuesday were investigating a reported bank robbery involving two armed suspects at the Navigant Credit Union on Broad Street.
According to reports, two males dressed in black and wearing black masks walked into the 693 Broad St. bank where they showed a firearm and demanded cash from a teller. The suspects were reported to have fled the scene in a green Chevy Impala with red dealer plates, and they were last seen heading toward Pawtucket.
PAWTUCKET — Though hailed as a centerpiece of the future Slater Mill National Park that local and state tourism officials are hoping becomes a reality, the Blackstone Valley Visitors Center at 175 Main St. has been struggling to pay its bills and its quasi-public owners are planning to put it up for sale.
PAWTUCKET — Graciette Nobre sat next to her tearful mother and other family members on the curb across from 191 Harrison Street on Monday as officials walked in and around the burned-out multi-family that was their home until yesterday afternoon. “I just want to get in there and see if I can get my car keys, and find any of my stuff,” she said. “All of my things, my documents, are in there.”
April 7th
PAWTUCKET -- A multi-building blaze broke out at about 1:30 p.m. Sunday on Harrison Street. The fire, which was reported to have started in one residential building, quickly spread to a second nearby building and then a third as the fire went to four alarms. There were scanner reports of possible injuries and mutual aid had to be called in to help fight the blaze. The fire appeared to be contained to three buildings and was brought under control about an hour after it was first reported. Firefighters remained on the scene throughout the afternoon. No immediate cause of the fire was given.
dkirwan@pawtuckettimes.com
PAWTUCKET — Change can be scary...especially if it affects one’s ability to get to work, school, or some other important destination.
The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) has embarked on a plan to change many of its bus routes statewide, and officials say they are trying to do it without causing hardship to riders.
In an effort that began last summer, RIPTA has been doing a “Comprehensive Operational Analysis,” a study of where riders live and work, how each bus route is performing, and where changes could be made to improve service.
April 5th
Just one day after state officials assembled to roll out a raft of proposed school safety legislation, a lockdown at the University of Rhode Island triggered by reports of a gunman on the South Kingstown campus brought new immediacy to what has become a national conversation about guns.
April 4th
SOUTH KINGSTOWN (AP) — The University of Rhode Island is ending a lockdown and says an investigation has revealed there was no gun or active shooter at any time on its South Kingstown campus.
The school ordered students and staff to stay indoors Thursday after reports of a gunman on campus.
A student in an 11 a.m. physiology class told The Associated Press that she was sitting in the back of a large lecture hall when someone sounding scared yelled "You're a nice guy! You're a nice guy!"
The student says people then started to run and scream, and the professor told all the students to run.
PAWTUCKET — Pawtucket police are trying to find the suspects who shot at several homes on as many as five streets on the city's east side. No one was injured.
Officers responded to multiple reports of gunfire late Wednesday night in the areas of Englewood Avenue, Prospect Street, Division Street and Meadow Street.
Several homes and a car were hit in what authorities believe were related drive-by shootings.
Police didn't release any other information Thursday morning.
See FULL STORY in Friday;s Times.
April 3rd
dkirwan@pawtuckettimes.com
PAWTUCKET — The City Council has scheduled a special session Thursday night to discuss the Grebien Administration's suggested solution to the severely underfunded police and fire pension plan.
The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the City Council's Office, Room 303, at Pawtucket City Hall. Council President David Moran said he called the meeting so the councilors could learn more details about the proposed Funding Improvement Plan (FIP) that Mayor Donald Grebien's administrative team has developed.
dkirwan@pawtuckettimes.com
PAWTUCKET — It's officially time to ditch the hats and mittens...the Looff Carousel in Slater Park will be opening its doors this weekend to set the spring season in motion.
According to Cindy Medeiros of the city's Parks and Recreation Department, the historic carousel will begin its weekend hours of operation this Saturday, April 6, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. From April 6 to June 30, it will be open on Saturdays and Sundays only, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. After June 30, the carousel will operate seven days a week.
PROVIDENCE – Woonsocket Rep. Lisa Baldelli-Hunt says lawmakers who insist on reducing the annualized percentage rate for payday loans down from the current 260 percent to 36 percent immediately are “detrimental to the cause” of reforming an industry she sees as equivalent to “loan sharking.”
Baldelli-Hunt has once again filed legislation that would cut the interest rate down to 130 percent, or a two-week rate of $5 for every $100 borrowed.
April 2nd
jfitzgerald@woonsocketcall.com
CUMBERLAND – He was known as “Butch” by his friends and neighbors at Victorian Court, a small, tight-knit condominium complex on Nate Whipple Highway where neighbors often gather outside on a Sunday morning to share small talk over coffee.
On Monday, many of those same neighbors were expressing shock and disbelief after Butch, 73, and his 70-year-old wife were found dead in what police say was a murder-suicide while their daughter and grandchildren were in the couple’s 301 Nate Whipple Highway home on Easter Sunday.
April 1st
PROVIDENCE — Following up on last week’s announcement of a $150,000 grant to the Housing Action Coalition of Rhode Island, Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin announces a $1.5 million grant to Rhode Island Housing and the agency’s HUD-approved counseling center.
PAWTUCKET – In an era when leaders are constantly challenged to “think outside the box,” insights from experts on how to better understand important decisions and the best ways to make them can help show the way.
That’s what brought Mayor Donald R. Grebien, accompanied by Finance Director Joanna L’Heureux, to a recent two-day leadership session conducted at the Pell Center at Salve Regina University in Newport.
PAWTUCKET — Mellany Rodas, 18, a senior at St. Raphael Academy and a Boys & Girls Club of Pawtucket member for five years, has been named the Club’s 2013 Youth of the Year.
Rodas, of Central Falls, was chosen from a pair of youth nominees during the annual Youth of the Year dinner at the Alfred Elson, Jr. Clubhouse on Tuesday, March 26. Rodas has been accepted to URI and Newbury College and aspires to career options in physical therapy or sociology. She is a steadying presence at home with her three sisters and mother, contributing to her family through working, caring and maturity.
March 30th
PAWTUCKET – A city man prosecutors call a career offender has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for trafficking in oxycodone, a pharmaceutical painkiller similar to heroin.
Audi Pineda, 39, was also ordered to serve three years’ supervised release upon the completion of his sentence. He appeared in U.S. District Court this week before Judge John McConnell.
In October 2012, a jury convicted Pineda of conspiracy and two counts of possession of oxycodone with the intent to deliver, according to federal prosecutors.
PAWTUCKET – In the wake of recent revelations about fraud and abuse in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in Rhode Island, Pawtucket Rep. Mary Duffy Messier wants to require that the program’s Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards carry a photo ID of the recipient.
“It’s basically to prevent fraud,” in the federal program once known as Food Stamps, the Democratic lawmaker told The Times Thursday.
PAWTUCKET — There's “tired” and there's the “good kind of tired.” It seems the 42 Rhode Island World War II veterans who participated in a recent Honor Flight would put themselves in the latter category after their whirlwind day trip to the nation's capital.
March 28th
CUMBERLAND – Students at the high school Tuesday were asked to put their lives first and not to even think about texting when they are driving.
The request came from R.I. Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin, a former police officer, who is trying to warn students around the state about the sometimes fatal risks of texting when in a motor vehicle and getting them to pledge they will be safe.
