CRANSTON, R.I. -- A truck crash on Route 14 has caused the Rhode Island Department of Transportation to close the westbound lanes of Route 14 and the left lane of Route 295 south at Exit 4 Thursday afternoon to inspect the bridge, a news release from the transportation department said.

The crash of a westbound truck on Route 14 occurred at 12:20 p.m., a traffic management center alert said.

Anyone with questions may call the customer service office at (401) 222-2450 or look on the transportation department's Twitter and Facebook sites.

North Kingstown police

Joseph Howell, 27.

NORTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. -- A North Kingstown man, 27, was charged Thursday in the vandalism Monday during which Davisville Middle School security cameras caught an image of an intruder carrying bolt cutters and wearing a white face mask, a police news release said Thursday.

An investigation by police detectives led to the arrest of Joseph Howell of 116 West Allenton Rd. He was charged with a felony count of breaking and entering in the nighttime with felonious intent.

Lt. Christopher Emerson, detective commander, said the act was random, not targeting the school, students or staff.

Howell was given a felony screening date of June 18.

SCITUATE, R.I. -- The Rhode Island State Police honored fallen police officers at an annual ceremony Thursday and also awarded troopers and honored FBI personnel for their efforts following last month's bombings at the Boston Marathon.

A service ribbon, the highest honor bestowed, went to Trooper Roupen Bastajian, who ran the marathon and then applied medical tourniquets to people injured by the bombs.

A special commendation went to Trooper Meredith L. Zenowich, an event spectator, who helped injured people and also helped secure the crime scene, said Col. Steven G. O'Donnell.

O'Donnell issued a commendation to bomb sniffing dogs and their handlers and gave unit citations to the state police tactical team and staff at the state fusion center, an intelligence facility, for their assistance with the investigation.

Related: Head of FBI Boston, in RI for ceremony, declines comment on reports of Tsarnaev note

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Is Rhode Island the only state in the country that doesn't permit its campus police to carry guns?

That claim has been made repeatedly in the ongoing debate over whether to arm officers at the University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College and the Community College of Rhode Island.

PolitiFact Rhode Island examined the claim in 2011, when then-State Sen. Glenford Shibley said Rhode Island was the only state where campus police "carry out their duties unarmed."

We ruled it Mostly True because, at the time, campus police in Oregon were also unarmed. (That state's Board of Higher Education had approved a measure allowing them to carry guns, but it hadn't yet been implemented.)

We decided to check with Oregon to see whether campus police have gotten their guns.

The short answer: not yet.

Kelly McIver, public information officer for the University of Oregon Police Department, told us Thursday the issue is still under consideration. The earliest it could be addressed is June 21, if the university president chooses to make the request to the board, McIver said.

Bottom line: Rhode Island is still not the only state where campus police are unarmed. There's one other -- Oregon.

Providence Journal files / Connie Grosch

The Courthouse Center for the Arts.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. -- After spending the past four months regrouping, West Kingston's Courthouse Center for the Arts reopens Saturday with an open house and a return to a wide array of cultural activities, with the focus no longer on just theater.

The center, just west of URI on Route 138, opens its doors at 7 p.m. with an art exhibit and jazz.

The board suspended programming in late January to raise badly needed funds, and do some "soul searching," said Ami Awad, a spokesperson for the 25-year-old arts center. During that period, members decided to drop the emphasis on theater and revert to the original model of a general arts center, said Awad, offering a mix of art, music and educational programs.

LITTLE COMPTON
Call it Carolyn's Sakonnet Vineyards.

Alex and Ani, the Cranston-based jewelry maker, and president Carolyn Rafaelian completed the purchase of Sakonnet Vineyards in Little Compton in December and now the changes are beginning to show at the 170-acre site.

The name has been changed to add Rafaelian's, said general manager Cynthia Rocha.

Also new is a partnership with Russell Morin Fine Catering of Attleboro which will run the Vineyard's seasonal cafe and cater private events held on the property, said Timmy Tsmikas. The Warren native is the new vineyard chef.

He said his menu will include both light fare such as sandwiches and entrees with local seafood. Tsmikas will work with local farms and fishermen to create a farm and sea to table menu.
The cafe, which can serve about 80 to 100 people with an overflow on the deck of the vineyard store and tasting room, should open on Memorial Day weekend providing all permits are in order.

Also new will be wine flights with food pairings at the cafe, he said. Think white wines and oysters and dessert wines with sweets.

The first of a series of Farm to Table dinners wll be held from 5-8 p.m. on Wednesday, June 12. The cost is $110 per person and features Sakonnet wines, cocktails, a family-style dinner and dessert. (Reserve at 888-552-7822.)

The current 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours will be extended for both the vineyard tastings ($10 for 6 wine samples), tours and cafe, said Rocha. Come June 1, tours will be held on the hour each day; and hours will extend to 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday through Sunday.

What hasn't changed is the personnel who worked under the previous owners Earl and Susan Samson. All were retained, said Rocha.
Elaine Bernier, winemaker, and Lorraine Frank, vineyard manager, still the lead the team producing a variety of wines.

The vineyard is also still part of the Coastal Wine Trail which has its Wine, Cheese and Chocolate Market on June 22 at the Westport Fairground in Massachusetts.

Still to come for Carolyn's Sakonnet Vineyards: Thursday Night Music events will begin in June at the Vineyard at 162 West Main Rd., (401) 635-8486; and an updated website.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The state Family Court's chief judge testified before a Senate oversight hearing Wednesday that Rhode Island lacks adequate long-term residential programs in Rhode Island to care for youth with severe mental health problems.

"We are seeing more and more cases of youngsters with acute residential needs [for] long-term care," Chief Judge Haiganush R. Bedrosian said. "Rhode Island is a very small state. It doesn't have the proper [programs] for these long-term placements."

Bedrosian was one of four state officials to testify before the state Senate Health and Human Services Committee, which oversees the state Department of Children, Youth and Families.

State Child Advocate Regina M. Costa said that the state has only two residential facilities -- Harmony Hill School and St. Mary's -- with treatment programs for children with mental health issues. Other residential programs are designed for youth in juvenile corrections or other specialized populations, she said.

Costa testified that funding to the DCYF has been reduced by approximately $33 million since 2009, and by more than $24 million from 2011 through the current fiscal year. And she urged lawmakers to provide additional funds to the agency and oversee how the money is spent to make sure it's going directly to meet the needs of children in state care.

The hearing, chaired by Sen. Joshua Miller, is scheduled to continue later this evening.

This entry was first posted at 1:35 p.m.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The state liquor regulator has reversed a longstanding interpretation of the law on selling a bottle of distilled spirits in a bar or nightclub.

A whole bottle may be sold for on-premises consumption, according to a recent order by the state Department of Business Regulation, which oversees liquor licenses. The order notes, however, that the drinks must be poured by a certified server.

City of Providence officials say it is a misinterpretation and that the city will sue to stop its enforcement. The city's licensing board has been cracking down on the practice.

"Bottle service," as the term is generally used, refers to the sale of a whole bottle of a distilled spirit, usually in a nightclub's VIP section. Clubs often require the purchase of a bottle as a prerequisite for VIP seating.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The May 9 announcement that a burial site had been found for the body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev led to speculation about the location of the grave.

The next day, after media outlets confirmed that Tsarnaev had been interred in a Muslim cemetery 15 miles from Richmond, Va., WPRO talk show host John DePetro weighed in.

DePetro, at first, seemed to ask his talk-show audience if the site was near John F. Kennedy's grave. But then he simply declared to his listeners that it was.

"You know, in a way, think of who else is there. That is, President Kennedy is buried not far from there, in Virginia," he said.

PolitiFact Rhode Island checked DePetro's claim and ruled it Pants on Fire. Read the complete analysis here.

By Kate Bramson and Paul Grimaldi
Journal Staff Writers

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Danny Warshay recalls a time when people in Rhode Island who wanted to create their own companies from scratch were considered oddballs, or even "mutants."

He was one of them, back when he graduated from Brown University in 1987 and was developing a software start-up here. Nobody understood him or his peers, he says, and when they ultimately sold their start-up to Apple, that compelled them to relocate to the West Coast.

Times have changed, he says.

"Nobody thinks of entrepreneurs as mutants anymore. They're coveted," says Warshay, who lives in Rhode Island once again and is executive chairman of a fast-growing Rhode Island company, G-Form.

Warshay joined other entrepreneurs and more traditional businesspeople on Tuesday at The Garage, the reinvented business exposition put on by the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce with hopes of kick starting a still-struggling Rhode Island economy.

Read more in The Providence Sunday Journal series, "#eWave: The Digital Revolution," about The Garage's efforts to bolster the Ocean State's economy. Find the series online here.

And join the conversation on Twitter with the hashtag #eWave about how technology is affecting the ways we live, work and play.

FOSTER, R.I. -- A 38-year-old Connecticut woman was killed Thursday afternoon when her red Ford Focus going east on Route 6 was struck on the passenger side by a northbound gold Buick Regal on Foster Center Road (Route 94), state police officials said Friday.

The impact at the intersection of the two roads sent both vehicles across all lanes of Route 6. They landed in the grass on the north side of the highway.

The woman, Tracy Guy, of 56 Dawley Road, Griswold, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The other driver, Will Girard, 19, of 96 Central Pike, Foster, was taken to Rhode Island Hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening.

The accident is being investigated. Witnesses are asked to call (401) 444-1000.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Starting at noon Saturday, the Hope Street bus will detour around the Hope Street Merchants Association Festival, which lasts until 7 p.m.

Outbound Bus Route 42 will take a right onto Rochambeau, left onto Elmgrove, left onto Blackstone, and then a right back onto Hope.

Inbound, the 42 bus will turn left off Hope onto Blackstone, right onto Elmgrove, right onto Rochambeau and then a left back onto Hope.

For schedule information, call (401) 781-9400 or visit the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority website.

For more about the festival, visit the Hope Street website.

Daniel E. Doyle, the indicted director of the Institute for International Sport, asked a judge Friday for permission to travel to Florida for a possible job.

Superior Court Melanie Wilk Thunberg said she would review the request after state prosecutors have a chance to investigate the job prospect, which was not disclosed.

Two weeks after Doyle was arraigned on charges that he looted the Sports Institute, located on the University of Rhode Island campus, of more than $1 million, he was back in court for a brief hearing.

In setting his bail at $100,000, Superior Court Judge Robert D. Krause limited Doyle's travel to Connecticut, where he lives, and Rhode Island, denying a request to allow him to travel to Florida to do consulting work.

On Friday, Thunberg did give Doyle permission to travel to Massachusetts, where his daughter lives. But organizers of a New England Basketball Hall of Fame dinner scheduled for Worcester, Mass., on June 22 told The Providence Journal earlier this week that Doyle -- who founded the Hall -- would not attend the event, which he is helping to plan, so as not to be a distraction.

Thunberg said that she would review Doyle's request to be allowed to travel to Florida on May 31 in Washington County Superior Court.

This weekend's Rhode Island history mystery at our Time Lapse blog leads with an illustration that led the Sunday Journal one holiday weekend.

See it and a later photo from the event it anticipates at Flying machines over RI: When, where, why the fuss?. Hazard a guess in comments there, then come back Sunday to see the answers and the Journal's coverage of the event.

Here's the schedule:

SATURDAY
Johnson & Wales University
Culinary and hospitality ceremony: 8-10:30 a.m., Dunkin' Donuts Center, Providence. Brian J. Foye, 1985 MBA graduate, president of Seasons 52 of Darden Restaurants is the speaker and will receive an honorary degree.
Arts, science, business, technology ceremony: 2-4:30 p.m., Dunkin' Donuts Center, Providence. Steven L. Spinner, president and chief executive officer of United Natural Foods Inc., is the speaker and will receive an honorary degree.

Rhode Island College
Undergraduate ceremony, 9:30 a.m. on the college's esplanade. Marie Elizabeth Petrarca, a supporter of the arts community in Rhode Island, is the keynote speaker.

Roger Williams University
Undergraduate ceremony, 10 a.m. in a tent on the main athletic field on the Bristol campus. Historian John M. Barry, biographer of Roger Williams, is the speaker and will receive an honorary degree.

Bryant University
Undergraduate ceremony, 10 a.m., outside next to residence hall 16 on the Smithfield campus. Historian Jon Meacham, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Random House executive editor and executive vice president, is the commencement speaker.

University of Rhode Island
Graduate school ceremony, 1 p.m. in the Ryan Center on the South Kingstown campus. Mary E. Kennard vice president, general counsel and secretary for American University is the speaker and will receive an honorary award.

SUNDAY MAY 19
Salve Regina University
Undergraduate ceremony, 10 a.m. behind the O'Hare Academic Center on the Newport campus. Nicholas W. Benson and his father John E. Benson, proprietors of John Stevens Shop and artists behind Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and John F. Kennedy Memorial, will be the main speakers and receive honorary degrees.

Providence College
Undergraduate ceremony, 11 a.m. at the Dunkin' Donuts Center, Providence. The Rev. Robert Barron, creator and host of the "Catholicism" documentary series and founder of a global media ministry, will give the commencement address and receive an honorary doctorate in religious education.

University of Rhode Island
Undergraduate ceremony, 12:30 p.m. in the Ryan Center on the South Kingstown campus. URI will confer honorary doctorate degrees upon Carolyn Rafaelian and Giovanni Feroce, the founder and CEO, respectively, of Alex and Ani. Feroce, will address the graduating class. Rafealian will share a few words with the graduates as well.

COVENTRY, R.I. -- A court ruling issued Friday by Superior Court Judge Brian P. Stern transfers the responsibility for the future of the beleaguered Central Coventry Fire District from a court-appointed special master to a new seven-member board of directors that will be elected June 29.

Stern authorized the new board to formulate a new budget for the district, taking into account its outstanding debts, and recommend a tax levy to the voters.

He gave the board the authority to negotiate or renegotiate contracts and agreements, including with the firefighters union, and also requested that the board come up with a contingency plan should the taxpayers reject a new budget.

The Rev. John Denning, a native Rhode Islander and the current vice-president for student affairs at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass., has been named the college's 10th president, it was announced Friday.

Denning, 53, will assume the presidency of the Catholic college on July 1, succeeding the Rev. Mark Cregan, who held the post for 13 years.

The La Salle Academy graduate, received his bachelor's degree from Tulane University in New Orleans and entered the Congregation of the Holy Cross in 1983. He also holds a master's degrees from the University of St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto and is a doctoral candidate at the University of Massachusetts in Boston.

The 65-year-old school is run by the priests and brothers of the Holy Cross.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The New England First Amendment Coalition has joined the call for the Justice Department to turn over seized Associated Press phone records.

Rosanna Cavanagh, the coalition's executive director, wrote a letter to U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder, saying the snooping into 20 AP bureau and personal phone lines "indicates that a failure of supervision or leadership has occurred on your watch."

In addition to taking a lead role in adoption of a federal shield law and returning the AP's records, Cavanagh asked Holder to suspend subpoenas for press data or telephone records until Justice personnel can be trained in the guidelines.

The letter also calls upon Holder to support enactment of a federal shield law that would protect journalists. The Rhode Island Press Association also asked members to support the shield law.

Saturday will be partly to mostly sunny, comfortable and dry. High temperatures will be in the low 70s inland, and low to mid 60s at the coast.

Look for partly cloudy skies Saturday evening, with temperatures dropping to the upper 40s to low 50s, with a slight chance of a shower.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) -- Less than 10 months after three tickets split a world-record lottery prize, the jackpot for Saturday's Powerball drawing was nearing historic territory once again.

Should nobody pick the correct six numbers, the prize money will roll over to next week's drawing and almost certainly eclipse the $656 million doled out to winners in Illinois, Kansas and Maryland in the Mega Millions game in March 2012.

But the record could fall Saturday night too if a flurry of last-minute ticket purchases pushes the jackpot much above its current $600 million level. Since the previous drawing on Wednesday, it had grown by at least $236 million.

It seems simple enough: Just correctly pick five white balls out of a drum of 59 and one red one out of a drum of 35.

However, the odds of a single $2 ticket hitting the correct combination are about 1 in 175.2 million. That's slightly less likely than randomly drawing the name of one specific female in the United States: 1 in 157 million, according to the last census.

Even if Saturday's drawing doesn't top last year's Mega Millions jackpot, it's already the highest in Powerball history, surpassing that game's $587.5 million record set in November 2012.