Providence Journal file photo

Gerard Donley

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Nicole "Coco" Brown testified Wednesday that she never wanted her boyfriend, Michael Drepaul, to accept money in exchange for not testifying against the man accused of stabbing him.

"Did you want any part of this?" asked prosecutor J. Patrick Youngs.

"Hell no," Brown said.

Then she got a call from her boyfriend's lawyer, Donna Uhlmann, in December 2011 to come to her office to pick up money, she said. "She told me not to ask any questions."

Over the next weeks, she would pickup $5,000 from Gerard Donley, lawyer for Drepaul's alleged attacker, Jamaal Dublin.

Asked what she thought the money was for, Brown said "not to go to court on Dub."

Donley is on trial for allegedly bribing Drepaul.

Journal file photo / Mary Murphy

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Anyone who sees wild turkey hens with or without broods is asked to note the date, location and numbers on a turkey brood report form.

The form is available at the Department of Environmental Management's website . Completed forms can be emailed to Brian Teft, principal wildlife biologist, or mail to him at Wild Turkey Project, DEM Division of Fish & Wildlife, 277 Great Neck Road, West Kingston, RI 02892.

The 2012 brood index of 2.6 young per hen surviving until fall was 25 percent below the 10-year average of 3.5 young per hen, the department said in a news release.

The statewide turkey population is estimated at about 3,500 birds. Several years of good productivity is needed to recover.

Providence Journal photo / Andrew Dickerman

Melissa Lawrence of 365 Public St. pleads not guilty to two felony assault charges in Providence District Court Wednesday.

Melissa Lawrence, 35, of 365 Public St. appeared before District Court Judge William Clifton and not guilty pleas were entered on her behalf. Clifton released her on $50,000 personal recognizance, meaning that she was free to leave provided that she appears for her next court date on Aug. 8.

Lawrence, who was handcuffed, wore a pink t-shirt with the message, ``My Attitude is Your Problem.''

Clifton ordered her to have no contact with the reporter, Abbey Niezgoda, 24, and photographer, Marc Jackson, 43. She is accused of siccing two pit bull terriers on Niezgoda, who suffered a puncture wound to her arm, and striking Jackson with a rock. They had stopped by Lawrence's house on Tuesday to do a story on her daughter, Ny' asia, who was shot on Sunday night.

The incident was caught on tape.

A former Providence woman was killed Monday and the father of her 6-month-old son died Tuesday after a suspected underage drunken driver rear-ended their Toyota near Disney World in Orlando, television stations there are reporting.

Giselle Batista, 24, was in the passenger seat of a Corolla that was stopped for a red light on World Center Drive just after 12:30 a.m., according to WOFL Fox 35 Orlando.

Neither she nor Benjamin Frias, 30, was belted in when a Charger struck their car.

A Florida Highway Patrol trooper said that Alejandro Correa, 20, did not know he'd been involved in a crash. "He thought he'd actually been pulled over by troopers on a traffic stop," Sgt. Kim Montez said.

Correa had minor injuries and was charged with DUI manslaughter.

A family member said the baby would have been in the car if Batista's mother hadn't insisted on giving the new parents a night off to see a movie.

SCITUATE, R.I. -- A Level III sex offender wanted for a sex assault in Massachusetts was arrested in a Providence Marriott Hotel room early Wednesday after a standoff in which the fugitive said he would shoot himself if police entered, Rhode Island State Police officials said in a news release Wednesday.

Troopers negotiated with the Taunton man, James M. Bowen, 49, for several hours, the release said, during which he claimed a female was with him. He eventually surrendered, and a search of the room yielded no weapons or other people.

The release said Bowen was held overnight at the Lincoln Woods Barracks and was arraigned in District Court, Providence, on obstruction and fugitive charges. He waived an extradition hearing and awaits return to Massachusetts.

PROVIDENCE -- Governor Chafee, Providence Mayor Angel Taveras and Cranston Mayor Allan Fung expect to gather Thursday at the State House to announce more than $2 million in summer employment programs for Rhode Island youth ages 14 to 24.

The funding for the youth jobs comes from the Governor's Workforce Board and the Rhode Island Department of Human Services. Two young people who got summer jobs through the program in 2012 expect to talk about the work experience they gained at a State House event on Thursday at 1 p.m.

The same amount of money was available last year from the two state departments. The Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training's YouthWORKS411 system plays a key role in recruiting and placing young people in the jobs. More information about those centers is available online .

AP Photo / Charles Dharapak

President Barack Obama stands with UN Ambassador Susan Rice, right, current National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, second from right, and Samantha Power, his nominee to be the next UN Ambassador, left, in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, where he made the announcement.

By JULIE PACE
AP White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Shaking up his national security team, President Barack Obama tapped diplomat Susan Rice as his national security adviser, defying Republicans who have vigorously criticized her faulty explanation about the attack on Americans in Benghazi, Libya.

"Susan is the consummate public servant -- a patriot who puts her country first," Obama said while announcing Rice's appointment Wednesday during a Rose Garden ceremony.

Rice will take over the top national security post from Tom Donilon, who is resigning after four years in the White House. Obama lauded the 58-year-old Donilon for having "shaped every single national security policy of my presidency," including the renewed U.S. focus on ties with Asia.

The president also announced the nomination of former White House aide Samantha Power to replace Rice as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Power is a human rights advocate and expert on genocide.

It's unclear whether the changes signal a significant shift in Obama's foreign policy, particularly in Syria, where the U.S. is being pressured to act against President Bashar Assad.

Power is seen as a proponent of American intervention on humanitarian grounds and Rice backed greater U.S. involvement in Libya, though administration officials have made clear they don't draw direct comparisons between the current situation in Syria and the 2011 push to oust Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. In that situation, the U.S. Britain and France maintained a no-fly zone to allow rebels to fight back against Gadhafi.

For Rice -- a longtime Obama ally and close confidante of the president -- the appointment is a bit of redemption after she was forced to withdraw from consideration as Obama's second-term secretary of State amid criticism of her handling of the Benghazi attacks. Rice said at the time that she did not want her confirmation hearing to become a distraction for the White House. The national security post does not require Senate confirmation.

Neither Obama nor Rice mentioned the Benghazi controversy during Wednesday's ceremony. Rice said she looked forward to working with lawmakers from both parties "to protect the United States, advance our global leadership and promote the values Americans hold dear."

Rice's selection was greeted by a muted response from some Republicans who had earlier accused her of being part of an administration cover-up in the Benghazi attacks.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, one of Rice's harshest critics, wrote on Twitter Wednesday that he disagreed with her appointment but would "make every effort" to work with her on important matters. And Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, the top Republican on the foreign relations committee, said he had spoken with Rice and looked forward "to working with her on shaping important foreign policy and national security issues."

Rice, who first started working for Obama during his 2008 presidential campaign, has a close relationship with the president and many of his advisers. Her long-standing ties to Obama are expected to afford her significant influence within the White House.

The 48-year-old also served in various national security positions during the Clinton administration, including in key roles on peacekeeping and African affairs. Her world view is said to have been shaped by Clinton's decision to not intervene in the Rwandan genocide, a move Rice said later deeply affected her.

Power won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in general nonfiction for her book "A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide," which examined U.S. foreign policy toward genocide in the 20th century. She is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School.

According to a biography on the White House website, Power also served as a professor at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, where she taught courses on U.S. foreign policy, human rights, and extremism.

The White House official said Donilon is expected to stay on the job until early July, after Obama wraps up overseas trips to Europe and Africa, as well as an unusual summit in California later this week with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Donilon, a graduate of La Salle Academy, started his political career as an intern in the Carter White House when he was an undergraduate at the Catholic University of America. He worked at increasingly responsible positions on a series of presidential campaigns - including the campaign of then-Senator Biden in 1988 - and along the way earned his law degree at the University of Virginia.

Donilon has overseen a foreign policy agenda at the White House that put increased emphasis on the U.S. relationship with Asia. He's also played a key role in the administration's counterterrorism strategy, including the raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden, and in managing the complex U.S. ties with Russia.

Providencejournal.com readers may have noticed that the "most active" story on our website today and Monday is from May 30, 2012: "Lincoln officer who kicked woman will fight termination."

It's not a technical glitch.

This story is about former Lincoln Police Officer Edward Krawetz, who was convicted in January 2012 of felony battery with a dangerous weapon -- his foot -- after a 2009 incident at Twin River during which he kicked a handcuffed, seated woman in the head outside the slot parlor.

Officer Krawetz's story traditionally has drawn a strong audience on our website. Our videos have been embedded or linked to on various law enforcement websites, whose readers consistently click through to our coverage well after these stories and videos were published.

But that doesn't seem to be where the traffic is coming from this week.

During the trial, a Rhode Island State Police expert testified that Krawetz reacted with "excessive" force that was "well out of proportion" when he kicked Donna Levesque, 44, of Uxbridge, Mass., after she kicked at him in 2009.

We did notice several of the recent comments posted on this story are not in English: Google Translate says these comments are in Turkish.

At least as translated by Google, the comments don't make much sense in and of themselves, but a there's certainly a possible clue there.

Could the sudden interest be from people who are following or affected by the massive demonstrations in Turkey, sparked by the use of excessive force by police in that country last week?

NYT 6.4.2013: Turkish Official Apologizes for Force Used at Start of Riots

AP 6.5.2013: Activists present list of demands in Turkey

Providencejournal.com readers, what can you tell us about why this story is drawing an audience again, so many months after it was published?

This initial version of this report was published at 11:38 a.m.

UPDATE: We can see after digging into the numbers a little that 75 percent of the interest in this story originates on Facebook and 73 percent of that is people on Facebook in Turkey.

Updated June 5, 2013 3:51 PM

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - General Treas. Gina Raimondo has issued a statement in response to the largest state employee's union hiring of Forbes magazine blogger critic Edward "Ted'' Siedle.

Her spokeswoman and deputy chief of staff Joy Fox said: "The news that Rhode Island Council 94, AFSCME has retained Ted Siedle raises questions about the credibility and motives of Siedle's previous columns. This was a bait and switch. He sold himself as a journalist while pitching a local union for business.

"It's not clear how much he is charging union members as a consultant, why he is focused on Rhode Island when other public pension funds have higher allocations to alternatives, or if he has additional personal or political motivations.''

"The Treasurer's top priority continues to be retirement security. She remains proud of the work of the General Assembly, the State Investment Commission and her team has done to move our state pension system onto a secure and sustainable path.''

Recently, Treasury continued its commitment to financial disclosure by increasing the amount of online information available regarding pension investments.'

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A financial analyst scheduled to talk to lawmakers Thursday about the ramifications of defaulting on the 38 Studios debt works for a firm that has ties to companies involved in that deal.

Matthew Fabian is managing director of Municipal Market Advisors, a company whose client list includes Assured Guaranty Municipal Corp., the state's insurer in the $75-million loan guarantee deal, as well as Charles Schwab, an investment house that is among the 38 Studios bondholders, according to the company's website.

Fabian will be speaking to the House Finance Committee Thursday afternoon. A House spokesman has said Fabian is a respected expert in the so-called "moral obligation" bond arena who "doesn't have a stake" in the 38 Studios issue.

State Rep. Karen MacBeth, D-Cumberland, said she was concerned about Fabian's company's ties. "He can't be neutral if his clients are involved in 38 Studios," she said.

House Finance Committee Chairman Helio Melo, D-East Providence, responded that Assured Guaranty Municipal is one of 300 clients for Fabian's firm, including the federal Securities Exchange Commission, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and the Pew Foundation.

The firm has been used analysts for major news outlets and testified before the U.S. Senate, he added.

"My thinking was that if it's good enough for Washington D.C., then it's good enough for Rhode Island," Melo said.

Providence Journal photo / Frieda Squires

An electronic toll collector was installed several weeks ago on the Portsmouth side of the Sakonnet River Bridge.

David Darlington, the chairman of the Turnpike and Bridge Authority, said the agency will now continue to move toward instituting tolls on the bridge, where it is installing equipment to collect the tolls electronically.

The town had asked for a temporary injunction, which could have blocked the authority from instituting tolls at least until the case is argued based on evidence. That can take months.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Massachusetts state police have described the pilot of a small aircraft that crashed on Cuttyhunk Island Wednesday morning as a resident of Wilmington, Del., who was reported dead at the scene.

In a 5:54 p.m. update, the police identified him as Allen P. Spaulding Jr., 70. They said he was alone.

An investigation into the cause of the crash is being conducted by the state police, the Coast Guard, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board, and the Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission.

Cuttyhunk is in the Elizabeth Islands group, near Martha's Vineyard.

Small aircraft crashes on Cuttyhunk Island

This item was originally posted at 4:15 p.m

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - With the General Assembly just weeks away from recessing, legislation to rein in the so-called payday lending industry still appears in play.

The two sides in the debate confirmed that they met privately last week at House Speaker Gordon D. Fox's request to try and work out compromise legislation.

Fox on Wednesday said he did not expect any specific outcome from the initial meeting, which he did not attend.

"I'm not even beginning to hope there will be a compromise. But we'll see," he said. "At some point, I'll get a report and we'll see where they differ and where they meet."

Rhode Island Coalition for Payday Reform, a group that includes the AARP, the NAACP and dozens of other local religious and community organizations, said it is willing to consider new legislative options to help address their concerns.

Brett Smiley, who represented the coalition during the Friday meeting, confirmed that those options include extending the current 13-day loan term or limiting how many loans a person can take out in a given year.

The coalition has been pushing for years for legislation that would simply reduce the interest rate payday lenders can charge from a 280 percent annualized rate to a 36 percent one.

Smiley said the "informal" and "very preliminary" meeting was significant in two respects: "There is a begrudging acceptance of the reality that this issue is not going away. And so there is desire to take action and make progress towards meaningful reform. That's on the one hand. On the other hand, there is also a recognition that our coalition is open-minded and willing to hear new ideas in ways that maybe there weren't in the past."

Jamie Fulmer, spokesman for Advance America, a national payday lender, meanwhile, declined to elaborate on what his company offered during the discussions.

"As I expressed to you in the past, Advance America is always willing to participate in a constructive dialogue about ways we can work together to create an environment that promotes a balanced approach that offers strong consumer protections, while protecting consumers ability to access to regulated credit," he said via email. "Beyond that, I don't think it is appropriate at this point to discuss any specific discussions that we have had."

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Jurors heard criminal defense lawyer Gerard Donley Thursday through recorded grand jury testimony explain why he paid a convicted felon $6,000.

"...his injury was what he was being paid for," Donley said of payments he made to Michael Drepaul's girlfriend on behalf of his ex-client Jamaal Dublin, who is accused of stabbing Drepaul.

"I would never, ever, ever, ever have tried to pay somebody to change testimony or to ...ah...not testify or if it weren't for the injury, that would never have hit the table," he said.

Jurors also heard a wiretap conversation between Donley and Drepaul at federal prison. "You could be unsure of things ... you know what I mean?" he tells Drepaul.

Prosecutors accuse Donley of conspiring to bribe Drepaul not to testify against Dublin.

Providence Journal photo/ Mary Murphy

Governor Chafee shakes hands with Providence Mayor Angel Taveras as Chafee announces more than $2 million in summer employment programs for Rhode Islanders between the ages of 14 and 24. Sitting to the viewers' right is state Department of Labor and Training Director Charles Fogarty and Cranston Mayor Allan Fung.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. --Two of first-term Governor Chafee's potential 2014 challengers joined him at the State House Thursday to hail a $2.1 million summer-jobs program that will provide minimum-wage jobs for 1,500 Rhode Islanders aged 14 to 24.

Sharing the spotlight were Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, a Democrat, and Cranston Mayor Allan Fung,a Republican. The event marked the first joint appearance of the three since Chafee, a former Republican elected governor as an independent, became a Democrat last week.

His party switch places him in a potential Democratic primary fight with both Taveras and state Treasurer Gina Raimondo, with the winner potentially facing Fung in a general election. At this point, none have officially announced their candidacies.

The program that drew them together is an annual event.

The funding for the youth jobs comes from the Governor's Workforce Board and the Rhode Island Department of Human Services, including $1.5 million raised from an assessment on employers and $600,000 from the federally-funded family welfare program.

The same amount of money was available last year from the two state departments.

Providence Journal video by Sandor Bodo

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Joey of "WarHorse" meets Providence Mounted Command horses Sardelli and Adonis in front of the Providence Performing Arts Center.

Danny Yoerges, head, Brian Robert Burns, heart, and Jessica Krueger, hind, are the actor/puppeteers that bring Joey to life.

Patrol officers Tara DaSilva is on Sardelli and Manny Soares is on Adonis.

Providence Journal video Bob Thayer

Her mother, who also loves ballet, saw her daughter's great promise and encouraged her to pour her heart and soul into every lesson.

Cavaco, as Odette in Swan Lake, expresses deep emotion with every gesture and glance, riveting the eyes of the audience upon her and capturing the hearts of all.

She and her exquisite fellow dancers with Ballet Prestige in Barrington perform a powerful, yet elegant and deeply felt Swan, one of the truly memorable ballets by Tchaikovsky.

Swan Lake will be performed by the Ballet Prestige company June 8, at 4:30 p.m.

Tickets are $20 for adults, and $12 for children.

Go to balletprestige.com for more information.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. - A Westerly man pleaded not guilty Thursday when arraigned on a charge of manslaughter that resulted from the stabbing death of another Westerly resident on Oct. 29.

Mandell W. Tripp, 41, of 25 White Rock Rd. was released under $50,000 bail after entering the plea before Judge Melanie Wilk Thunberg of Superior Court. Tripp is to return to court for a hearing July 23. Thunberg ordered him to have no contact with the victim's family.

Tripp is accused of causing the death of Kevin Brown, 37, who was found unresponsive behind the wheel of a car that hit a tree. The police discovered that he had a stab wound and had been in a fight with Tripp.

LANNI

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Sandra A. Lanni, a lawyer with more than three decades of experience in Rhode Island's courts, is Governor Chafee's nominee for a seat on the Rhode Island Family Court.

Lanni's nomination for the position vacated by Judge Raymond E. Shawcross was announced by the administration Thursday afternoon.

"Sandra Lanni is extraordinarily well qualified for this position," Chafee said in a news release.

Lani is a former general counsel for the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education who has been running her own firm, focusing heavily on family law.

In the 1980s, she wrote a U.S. Supreme Court brief taking issue with a Nativity scene displayed on public property by the City of Pawtucket.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Thirteen people, eleven from Rhode Island and two children from Connecticut are being treated for rabies exposure after a family found a baby raccoon in Coventry and took it into their home.

The Department of Environmental Management found rabies in the baby raccoon which was submitted for testing on June 4, according to an news release from the DEM.

The raccoon was found May 29 on John Franklin Road, which is in a rural area of Coventry near the Scituate line. The family that found the animal brought it home, where it had contact with several adults and one minor child.

Finding rabies in wildlife is common and one of the reasons DEM prohibits people from possessing native wildlife and limits those who are authorized to rehabilitate sick or injured wildlife to those properly trained and immunized against rabies.

Anyone who may have had potential contact with a raccoon in that area should contact the RI Department of Health's Division of Infectious Diseases at (401) 222-2577 for evaluation.

Wild animals that act aggressively or are noticeably sick should be reported to the DEM Division of Law Enforcement at (401) 222-3070 or to your local animal control officer.