The Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) started work this week to upgrade the southern entrance plaza (downtown side) of Providence Station. Through a $6.9 million contract with J.H. Lynch & Sons, planned improvements will enhance circulation for all users of the station as well as create an inviting civic space. Pedestrian enhancements will also be made along Gaspee Street, and damaged concrete and limestone areas on the building's plaza will be repaired. Other planned improvements include adding amenities for bicyclists, updating signage and landscaping.
This work, which will be broken out into two phases, will require temporary restrictions, including a closure of the top level of the parking garage, a relocation of the taxi stands, and a closure of portions of Railroad Street and Park Row West. Project completion is scheduled for spring 2016. Legislation filed on behalf of Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin that would require child resistant packaging for e-liquid used in electronic nicotine-delivery systems such as e-cigarettes is scheduled to be heard before the House Committee on Health, Education and Welfare on Wednesday, March 25, 2015.
The legislation (H5493/S0714) is sponsored by Representative Helio Melo (D, District 64: East Providence) and Senate Majority Leader Dominick Ruggerio (D, District 4: North Providence, Providence). Ricky Wallace, aka Justice, 33, of Pawtucket, R.I., pleaded guilty in federal court in Providence on Monday to trafficking a 17-year-old woman from the Boston area to Pawtucket for the purposes of commercial sexual activity, announced United States Attorney Peter F. Neronha; Vincent B. Lisi, Special Agent in Charge of the Boston field office of the FBI; Pawtucket Police Chief Paul King; Colonel Steven G. O’Donnell, Superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police; United States Marshal Jamie A. Hainsworth; and Arlington, Mass., Police Chief Frederick Ryan.
Wallace admitted to the court that in addition to trafficking the 17-year-old, he also brought a 20-year-old woman from the Boston area to Rhode Island where she posed in photos posted on Backpage.com and offered her for commercial sexual activity. The American Civil Liberties Union of Rhode Island has requested the “gag order” issued for the settlement discussions in the pension case be lifted now that plaintiffs are voting on a possible settlement agreement. In a letter delivered Friday to R.I. Superior Court Judge Sarah Taft-Carter, the ACLU said that since the “broadly written” gag order was issued to protect the confidentiality of the mediation process, it is “counter-productive and unduly intrusive on basic First Amendment values to allow it to remain in effect” now that that task is completed.
Arthur Christopher Schaper
Chicago native, former Saul Alinsky acolyte, First Lady, US Senator, Presidential Candidate, and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton is the inevitable Democratic nominee for President, again. Democratic leaders in California are already launching “Ready for Hillary” fundraisers. Local activists tout Clinton’s margins of victory in hypothetical match-ups against all known potential Republican contenders, gleefully anticipating another four to eight years of the Democratic Party holding the White House (although likely facing a Republican held Congress). |
WBOB
|