Providence Journal (Providence, RI) articles from August 2007

Providence Journal (Providence, RI) archives from August 2007

Nestor executives in heated dispute.
August 1, 2007

Rebates available.
August 1, 2007

Most visitors come from nearby.
August 1, 2007

College eyeing 200 acres in East Greenwich.
August 1, 2007

Breaking down cultural barriers boosts understanding in workplace.
August 1, 2007

Town extends zoning study.
August 2, 2007

Historic downtown landmark sold for $6.5 million.
August 4, 2007... Byline: Timothy C. Barmann Aug. 4--The former bank building at Dorrance and Westminster is the current home of Federal Reserve, a special-events reception hall. The former Union Trust building, considered one of Providence's...

State agency still harbors hopes for Quonset Gateway project.
August 5, 2007... Byline: Benjamin N. Gedan Aug. 5--Five months after a state board overwhelmingly rejected the $120-million Quonset Gateway development, the state agency that oversees the business park says it still hopes to revive the controversial...

A work in progress -- with a view.
August 5, 2007... Byline: Christine Dunn Aug. 5--Renovation work and general upkeep is a common sight in Westerly's Watch Hill, one of Rhode Island's priciest oceanfront villages. Almost any fine summer day will find painters, carpenters and gardeners...

The Providence Journal, R.I., John Kostrzewa column.
August 5, 2007... Byline: John Kostrzewa Aug. 5--The Newport mansions, South County beaches and Providence restaurants get all the attention when people talk about the tourism industry in Rhode Island. Bob Billington feels left out. "We are...

Getting a taste of local agriculture.
August 6, 2007... Byline: Benjamin N. Gedan Aug. 6--The Waterman Grille served up sauteed flounder with a corn and peach vinaigrette, the fruit and vegetables having made the trip to Newport from Dame Farm and Orchards in Johnston. For the grilled...

Helping teachers find the next wave of computer programers.
August 6, 2007... Byline: Andy Smith Aug. 6--The red dragon flew toward the castle, determined to rescue the imprisoned princess. Only sometimes it flew too high, or too low. Once it flew right through the princess. In a classroom at the Gabelli...

R.I. housing figures failed to bloom during spring quarter.
August 7, 2007... Byline: Benjamin N. Gedan Aug. 7--Real-estate agents had high hopes for this spring, typically their busiest season. There was a large inventory of homes on the market, prices had dropped and money was plentiful for borrowing. If they...

Business professionals find lessons for life at Bryant.
August 7, 2007... Byline: Nicole Dungca Aug. 7--SMITHFIELD -- Kris Morrill graduated from Bryant University in 1988, but every Thursday, it's back to school for the 42-year-old Citizens Bank employee. At Bryant's Executive Development Center, a wide...

The Providence Journal, R.I., MoneyLine column.
August 7, 2007... Byline: Neil Downing Aug. 7--If you own preferred stock in Old Stone Corp. of Providence, get ready for your long-awaited payment. The company plans to distribute $56.9 million next week to holders of its preferred stock. Details...

Mass. sets its tax-free weekend.
August 7, 2007... Byline: Paul Grimaldi Aug. 7--The Massachusetts sales-tax holiday rolls around this weekend, the fourth year the Bay State has offered the break to help retailers during the normally slack sales month of August. Shoppers are expected...

City says up to 300 tax payments are missing.
August 7, 2007... Byline: John Castellucci Aug. 7--PAWTUCKET -- As many as 300 first-quarter tax payments have been lost, setting off a flurry of late notices from the city and a slew of angry telephone calls from taxpayers accused of owing taxes even...

Council vote on union pact is postponed.
August 8, 2007... Byline: John Castellucci Aug. 8--PAWTUCKET -- A City Council vote on a controversial union contract has been postponed, prompting charges that the postponement is a maneuver meant to bring about the contract's defeat. The vote to...

A more welcoming look.
August 8, 2007... Byline: Benjamin N. Gedan Aug. 8--The state agency that controls the Quonset Business Park will unveil today a significant redesign of the Quonset Gateway project, a $144-million development that was derailed by state planners in March...

Outbursts mark Rte. 1 workshop.
August 8, 2007... Byline: Maria Armental Aug. 8--CHARLESTOWN -- It was to be a public workshop to gather input on a proposed ordinance to create a "scenic overlay" -- restrictions on development -- along Route 1 and parts of Route 1A. Invitation cards...

City eyes Registry -- again.
August 9, 2007... Byline: John Castellucci Aug. 9--PAWTUCKET -- Two months ago, negotiations to buy the former Registry of Motor Vehicles building appeared to have reached a dead end, with building owner Louis C. Yip demanding $4.8 million for the property...

Panel puts off work on exit 1 master plan.
August 9, 2007... Byline: Maria Armental Aug. 9--HOPKINTON -- An ad hoc zoning committee working on a master plan for Route 95's exit 1 area yesterday put off for two weeks its review of the draft document over some members' concerns that advance notice had...

Beacon Mutual Insurance helped local golfer's career take flight.
August 10, 2007... Byline: Mike Stanton Aug. 10--When Mike Capone was struggling to make it as a professional golfer, the Beacon Mutual Insurance Co. was there. From 1999 to 2004, when the former Cranston resident and Bishop Hendricken High School star...

U.S. Rep. Langevin weighs in on trade, security.
August 10, 2007... Byline: Benjamin N. Gedan Aug. 10--CRANSTON -- The United States can hugely increase its inspections of shipping containers without jeopardizing international trade, U.S. Rep. James R. Langevin said yesterday. Speaking to a group of...

The Providence Journal, R.I., MoneyLine column.
August 11, 2007... Byline: Neil Downing Aug. 11--Planning to take advantage of the Massachusetts sales-tax holiday this weekend? Keep in mind a couple of key points: If you're a Rhode Island resident, chances are that any purchase you make won't be truly...

Motivation gets paid up front in Year Up.
August 12, 2007... Byline: Andy Smith Aug. 12--"It sounded too good to be true," said Lewis Adams, 20, of Rehoboth. "I checked out the Web site, and it seemed too good to be true," said Kendalyn Phillips, 21, of Providence. Phillips and Adams were...

Maker of Westport skiffs is attracting international attention.
August 12, 2007... Byline: Tom Meade Aug. 12--From Eastport, Maine, to Westport, Mass., every fishing community within the original boundaries of the Massachusetts Bay Colony developed its own wooden work skiff. Westport skiffs, some of them decades old,...

The Providence Journal, R.I., MoneyLine column.
August 12, 2007... Byline: Neil Downing Aug. 12--QUESTION: When I left a previous employer and attempted to rollover my 401(k) to an IRA, they would only allow me to transfer the funds and related gains corresponding to my contributions to the plan,...

Homey, unpretentious, on the water.
August 12, 2007... Byline: Christine Dunn Aug. 12--Plymouth Street in Chepiwanoxet. The neighborhood is filled with modest-sized cottages and bungalows on small lots. Ken Koehler lived on a boat on Brewer's Marina in East Greenwich for 3 1/2 years before...

The Providence Journal, R.I., MoneyLine column.
August 13, 2007... Byline: Neil Downing Aug. 13--NON-WORKING SPOUSE IS ELIGIBLE FOR SOME SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS: What's the point of working if you can stay at home and still collect a benefit from Social Security? That, in a nutshell, is the question a...

A cup of politics with your joe.
August 14, 2007... Byline: Linda Borg Aug. 14--PROVIDENCE -- Now, you can put a double shot of liberal politics in your latte. Blue State Coffee, on Thayer Street, was started by the father-and-son team of Marshall and Drew Ruben of Wallingford, Conn....

At T.F. Green Airport, opportunities for artists are soaring.
August 15, 2007... Byline: Cynthia Needham Aug. 15--WARWICK -- T.F. Green Airport is becoming a veritable art gallery. Once again, the airport is looking to add to its ever-growing art collection, this time as part of its $83.5-million terminal upgrade...

Pawtucket holds fast to arts high school.
August 15, 2007... Byline: John Castellucci Aug. 15--PAWTUCKET -- It may be necessary to slash spending to balance the school budget. But one place where school officials aren't planning any cuts is the two-year-old Jacqueline M. Walsh High School for...

Cruising the Ocean State with the fuel of the future.
August 15, 2007... Byline: Michelle J. Lee Aug. 15--For the past several months, two Save the Bay educational vessels have been polluting less while taking students on field trips and churning the waters up and down Narragansett Bay. Since July 2006, the...

Biodiesel has arrived.
August 15, 2007... Byline: Michelle J. Lee Aug. 15--Rhode Island has its first biodiesel production facility, with the opening last month of Mason Biodiesel, in Westerly. And a Newport company is close behind. Phil Mason, president of Mason Biodiesel,...

Rhode Island ties bind book launch.
August 15, 2007... Byline: Donita Naylor Aug. 15--WESTERLY -- Best-selling author Mary Gordon chose the Other Tiger bookstore to launch her latest book tour, she said, "because I'm devoted to the small bookstore. I think they're an endangered species." ...

Astor's Beechwood in Newport for sale -- for $16 million.
August 15, 2007... Byline: Richard Salit Aug. 15--NEWPORT -- The Bellevue Avenue mansion that was once the summer home of the illustrious Astor family and which has been described as the place "where American society began" is for sale. With its asking...

Pawtucket council gives Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency go-ahead.
August 16, 2007... Byline: John Castellucci Aug. 16--PAWTUCKET -- An apartment building that the Pawtucket Redevelopment Agency has been trying without success to acquire by condemnation may finally become public property. The City Council, which refused...

DCYF money woes may leave providers short.
August 16, 2007... Byline: Steve Peoples Aug. 16--PROVIDENCE -- The Department of Children, Youth and Families is having a difficult summer. The agency learned in late June that it was a target of a sweeping class-action lawsuit filed by the state's...

Quonset yacht project wins OK.
August 16, 2007... Byline: Benjamin N. Gedan Aug. 16--WARWICK -- The Rhode Island Airport Corporation gave preliminary approval yesterday allowing a Florida developer to lease 32 acres at the Quonset Airport to construct a shipbuilding and repair yard for...

In pursuit of Porino's.
August 17, 2007... Byline: Paul Grimaldi Aug. 17--PAWTUCKET -- A food distributor based in Pawtucket is putting a little bit of Rhode Island's culinary tradition back on store shelves this summer by reintroducing Porino's food products. The prime mover...

American Biophysics gets set to pay creditor.
August 17, 2007... Byline: Paul Grimaldi Aug. 17--SOUTH KINGSTOWN -- A state Superior Court judge yesterday approved a lawyer's request to set aside $4.6 million to pay one of the largest remaining creditors of American Biophysics Corp., the defunct maker of...

Condo sales up in R.I., down in Mass.; prices down in R.I.(Financial report)
August 17, 2007... Byline: Lynn Arditi Aug. 17--Condo prices in Rhode Island are down, sales are up, and the number of units on the market continues to climb, according to real-estate reports released this week. The statewide median price of a condo...

R.I. forests are losing ground.
August 19, 2007... Byline: Paul Davis Aug. 19--Changing lifestyles are remaking New England, including southwestern Rhode Island, where this development is being built. People want bigger houses, and many have fled the cities. Second homes have put pressure...

A new chapter at Ann & Hope.
August 19, 2007... Byline: Philip Marcelo Aug. 19--CUMBERLAND -- It rose up from the east bank of the Blackstone River as the American Industrial Revolution raged, a massive brick cotton mill that would become an economic mainstay of the region. In the...

It's the East Side's Wellesley or Newton.
August 19, 2007... Byline: Christine Dunn Aug. 19--The upper northeast section of the East Side of Providence, known as the Blackstone neighborhood, contains some of the city's most notable urban green spaces, which lend a quiet, almost suburban flavor to...

These days a pharmacist does a lot more than fill prescriptions.
August 20, 2007... Byline: Andy Smith Aug. 20--"I tell my students that medication is the one retail item that people don't want to buy," said Sandy Rosa, former president of the Rhode Island Pharmacists' Association and a coordinator for the Pharmacy...

Airport train station revived.
August 21, 2007... Byline: Cynthia Needham Aug. 21--WARWICK -- The swath of land just west of the airport doesn't look like much -- a tangle of weeds and fencing that swells around train tracks. But officials say that's about to change. The long-stalled...

Selling it fresh all year long.
August 21, 2007... Byline: Benjamin N. Gedan Aug. 21--PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Lured by toothpick-speared cantaloupe slices, mountains of organic radishes and a bucket of giant sunflowers, shoppers streamed into the farmer's market at Kennedy Plaza on a recent...

Proposed Quonset Gateway project now includes huge athletic complex.
August 22, 2007... Byline: Benjamin N. Gedan Aug. 22--NORTH KINGSTOWN -- Endorsing a significant change to the Quonset Gateway project, the state agency that controls the Quonset Business Park has approved plans for a massive athletic complex to be built...

Making tracks for clean air.
August 22, 2007... Byline: Timothy C. Barmann Aug. 22--Motiva Enterprises has built a new railyard at its petroleum storage facility in Providence, allowing the company to receive shipments of ethanol by train. Motiva had been receiving ethanol by barge...

Pay raise for harbormaster.
August 22, 2007... Byline: Alisha A. Pina Aug. 22--EAST PROVIDENCE -- Fifteen thousand dollars is cheap compared with what he's worth. That's what City Councilman Bruce DiTraglia said last night right before the council unanimously approved a salary...

State to replace Smart Staffing with N.Y. firm.
August 22, 2007... Byline: Steve Peoples Aug. 22--PROVIDENCE -- Smart Staffing is out of a job. The staffing firm that received a no-bid emergency contract last fall will be replaced by the New York company Adil Business Systems Inc. in the coming weeks....

Warwick disputes FAA study on longer runway.
August 23, 2007... Byline: Cynthia Needham Aug. 23--WARWICK -- The city is again blasting the Federal Aviation Administration over its plans to expand the main runway at T.F. Green Airport, saying the agency used flawed methodology in calculating how long a...

Council demands contract impact statements.
August 23, 2007... Byline: John Castellucci Aug. 23--PAWTUCKET -- An ordinance requiring city officials to disclose the financial impact of future collective-bargaining agreements sailed through the City Council. The ordinance, introduced by Henry S....

Dedication of new dorms at URI is a family affair.
August 23, 2007... Byline: Arline A. Fleming Aug. 23--SOUTH KINGSTOWN -- Three new residence halls at the University of Rhode Island were dedicated yesterday, and named in honor of a former governor, a University of Rhode Island president emeritus, and three...

Competitors are now partners.
August 23, 2007... Byline: Benjamin N. Gedan Aug. 23--George Rajala of Attleboro, Mass., a CNC Section Leader at Mechanology, prepares to make a precision cut in a metal disc using a computerized milling machine in the company's plant. Rajala was testing one...

The Providence Journal, R.I., business notes column.(Column)
August 26, 2007... Byline: John Kostrzewa Aug. 26--RECALLING TEXTRON'S EARLIER TROUBLES: Providence-based Textron's agreement to pay the U.S. government $4.6 million to resolve charges it paid kickbacks to win contracts in Iraq from 2000 to 2003 during...

Casino Shuffle.
August 26, 2007... Byline: Paul Grimaldi Aug. 26--The drive this year by the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe to build a casino in Massachusetts has that state's governor considering whether multiple gambling halls could make it easier to grab hold of the $1.1...

Couple rents in New York City, buys in Newport.
August 26, 2007... Byline: Christine Dunn Aug. 26--Newport's charms as a summer playground attract a good number of tourists and vacation homebuyers, but for one young couple who live in Manhattan, their "second home" in Newport is the first residence they...

Union janitors make downtown streets their stage.
August 26, 2007... Byline: Andy Smith Aug. 26--Roxana Rivera, state director of the union local, leads a group in chants at the corner of Memorial Drive and Francis Street. About 35 people, janitors represented by Service Employees International Union...

Retraining offers second chance.
August 26, 2007... Byline: Andy Smith Aug. 26--Lisa Souza, of West Warwick, lost her job at ON Semiconductor in 2005. Ashkhen Amroyan and Ashot Martirosyan, a married couple from Cranston, both lost jobs at the Swarovski Group last year. But all three...

Creature Chronicles: Hopkinton haven offers parrots a perch.
August 27, 2007... Byline: Maria Armental Aug. 27--HOPKINTON -- Marc Johnson arrived from his latest pickup run carrying two small portable kennels. "Hello," came a voice from one of the carriers. Humphrey, a medium sulphur-crested cockatoo, peeked...

The Providence Journal, R.I., John Kostrzewa column.(Column)
August 27, 2007... Byline: John Kostrzewa Aug. 27--NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- During a long vacation drive, the old mills all start to look the same. The brick factories built along rivers that run through towns in New Hampshire and Vermont could be in Pawtucket,...

The Providence Journal, R.I., MoneyLine column.
August 28, 2007... Byline: Neil Downing Aug. 28--FIGURING TAXES ON SOCIAL SECURITY: QUESTION: I have registered to receive Social Security benefits for when I turn 62 in September. The booklet mailed to me from Social Security said that I will have to...

Pawtucket principal a finalist for national award.
August 28, 2007... Byline: John Castellucci Aug. 28--PAWTUCKET -- Two years ago, Samuel Slater Junior High School principal Merry Caswell took her teachers on a bus tour that included the four elementary schools that Slater draws from, a heavily used...

Single-family R.I. building permits rise in 2nd quarter.
August 29, 2007... Byline: Timothy C. Barmann Aug. 29--The number of single-family house building permits issued in Rhode Island increased in the second quarter to 409, compared with 384 in the second quarter last year, an increase of 6.5 percent, according...

Pawtucket moves to buy old RMV building.
August 29, 2007... Byline: John Castellucci Aug. 29--PAWTUCKET -- The saga of 286 Main St. may finally be drawing to a close. The City Council Property Committee authorized its lawyer to return next week with a purchase and sale agreement for the...

Boston's loss could be Rhode Island's gain.
August 29, 2007... Byline: Benjamin N. Gedan Aug. 29--PROVIDENCE -- The Rhode Island Convention Center Authority is moving to cash in on the demise of the Bayside Expo Center in Boston, which is slated for demolition to free up seaside real estate for a...

Sales of multifamily dwellings are slowing in R.I.
August 29, 2007... Byline: Lynn Arditi Aug. 29--Rhode Island's double- and triple-decker houses, which just a few years ago were being snapped up by real-estate investors, appear to have lost their luster. The "For Sale" signs on multifamily houses have...

High-end homes planned for Rocky Point.
August 29, 2007... Byline: Cynthia Needham Aug. 29--WARWICK -- Developer Nicholas E. Cambio is closing in on a $19-million deal to redevelop the former Rocky Point Amusement Park as a waterfront residential community alongside a city-owned swath of open...

Just say no to sprawl.
August 29, 2007... Byline: Lynn Arditi Aug. 29--PROVIDENCE -- In a challenge to suburban sprawl, state housing officials yesterday pledged up to $10 million to support the development of more integrated communities, designed to preserve open space. ...

Amgen begins voluntary staff reductions in one R.I. plant.
August 30, 2007... Byline: Benjamin N. Gedan Aug. 30--Employees of Amgen in West Greenwich are among those who will be offered buyouts so the company can achieve a 14-percent reduction in its worldwide work force. The Providence Journal / Frieda Squires...

Preparing to deal with bomb threats part of retail landscape.
August 30, 2007... Byline: Paul Grimaldi Aug. 30--Retailers and shopping-center owners for years have been preparing for incidents such as the bomb threat Tuesday that resulted in the evacuation of a Wal-Mart store in Newport, according to industry managers....