Archive - 2012 - News Article
April 27th
WOONSOCKET — The Wisconsin group challenging the constitutionality of a cross on a war memorial on city property says it expects to prevail without the type of long legal battle that unfolded over a prayer banner ordered removed this year from a public high school in Cranston.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation wrote to Mayor Leo Fontaine this month saying the Christian cross on a 1921 monument outside Fire Station No. 2 is unlawful because it violates the constitutional principle of separation of church and state.
April 26th
By RUSS OLIVO
WOONSOCKET — Marlene Gagnon shoves her hand deep into a rack of multi-colored clothing and yanks out a long, white gown of slippery sateen fabric with a ribbon of hieroglyphic-like imagery running up the back.
“That’s Cleopatra,” she says.
When William Jolicoeur went off to war as part of the 306th Infantry Regiment, 77th Division in 1917, he was part of a band of men that was very welcome in France. General John Pershing was glad to have them. Marshal Ferdinand Foch was glad to have them.
You see, they were from Woonsocket and could speak the native tongue, making them even more valuable than the other doughboys who were landing in Europe in droves.
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April 25th
WOONSOCKET — Citing allegations of sexual misconduct that happened nearly 30 years ago, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence has defrocked a priest assigned to Precious Blood parish and ordered him to move out of the rectory.
PAWTUCKET — While saying that he didn’t believe the accounts from either party were “100-percent accurate” and that the incident itself might have been sparked by “road rage,” a Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal magistrate on Wednesday ruled in favor of the Pawtucket Police Department and sustained charges of refusal to submit to a chemical test and a roadway violation that had been brought against Jarred Lynch stemming from his 2011 collision with a Pawtucket Police sergeant.
CUMBERLAND — Despite Cumberland Town Council President James T. Higgins' best efforts to drum up unanimous support, the council last week ended up voting 6 to 1 to adopt a resolution in support of Governor Lincoln Chafee's municipal reform and relief legislative package.
The vote came one week after Chafee personally urged the council to support his municipal rescue package, saying support of the proposals will ease the financial burden on cities and towns and help stave off more local bankruptcies.
April 24th
PROVIDENCE – At the core of it was a vexing question that Superior Court Judge Netti Vogel just couldn’t let go.
Why would a woman, abandoned in the snow “like road kill” after a hit-and-run in Woonsocket, suddenly decide that a jail-time sentence was too severe for the driver?
April 23rd
WOONSOCKET – The thorny constitutional principle of separation of church and state is rearing its head over a 1921 World War I monument featuring a prominent Christian cross on city property.
Unlike the recent prayer banner controversy in Cranston, which was sued by the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, the threat of legal action in this case is coming from the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a national nonprofit organization halfway across the country.
April 22nd
WOONSOCKET — A Cumberland lawyer who fought the state law that allowed Central Falls to enter receivership will be a guest of the City Council tonight.
With so much talk in the air advocating receivership for Woonsocket, officials are hoping Michael Kelly can provide some balance, said Councilman Albert G. Brien.
“He was very much involved in Central Falls and I was hoping we might be able to glean whether his experience there could be helpful to us as we debate the pros and cons of this issue,” said Brien, a staunch detractor of receivership.
