Six men were charged Monday for their roles in a Rhode Island cockfighting operation with each facing up to five years in prison. File Photo by St. Louis Circuit Attorney’s Office/Wikimedia Commons
Sept. 17 (UPI) — Six men were arraigned and charged with violations of the Animal Welfare Act in the U.S. District of Rhode Island Monday in Providence.
The six defendants are charged with up to five counts each for their roles in a March 5, 2022, cockfight allegedly held at the Providence home of defendant Miguel Delgado, 73, and at other times, the Dept. of Justice announced Tuesday.
The DOJ defines cockfighting a “contest in which a person attached a knife, gaff or other sharp instrument to the leg of a ‘gamecock’ or rooster and then places the bird a few inches away from a similarly armed rooster.”
The roosters fight by flapping their wings and jumping while stabbing and cutting each other with the weapons affixed to their legs until one dies or otherwise quits the fight. Both birds often die from their injuries.
The DOJ says Delgado hosted a series of cockfights called “derbies” at his home and is charged with sponsoring and exhibiting roosters in an animal fighting venture on several dates, buying and transporting sharp instruments called “gaffs” used in cockfights and illegally possessing roosters for use in an animal-fighting venture.
Rhode Island residents Onill Vasquez Lozada, 39, and Antonio Ledee Rivera are charged with unlawfully possessing roosters in April 2021 for use in an animal fighting venture and sponsoring and exhibiting roosters during the March 2022 derby at Delgado’s home.
Rivera also is charged with violations during an earlier cockfighting event at Delgado’s home.
Massachusetts resident Germidez Kingsley Jamie, 31; Jose Rivera, 67; and Luis Castillo, 35, are charged with sponsoring and exhibiting roosters at an animal fighting venture during the March 2022 derby.
Jamie and Jose Rivera also are charged with one count each for allegedly buying and transporting gaffs for use in an animal fighting venture.
If convicted, each defendant faces up to five years in federal prison.
Several federal and state law enforcement agencies investigated the cases the respective defendants.
A federal grand jury indicted the six defendants last week.
Seven members of a family in Alabama were convicted of similar charges in 2022 for their roles in an Alabama cockfighting ring.
Riverside County (Calif.) Sheriff’s deputies in August 2022 recovered 143 caged roosters that had to be euthanized after the deputies stopped a large cockfighting event in Jurupa Valley.
About 200 people attended the event, but most of them fled with the police arrived.
PROVIDENCE — Rhode Island has received nearly $32 million from the federal government to help residents make their homes more energy efficient and reduce the cost of their utilities, the first program of its kind in New England, Governor Dan McKee’s office said Tuesday.
The Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates (HEAR) program run by the state’s Office of Energy Resources secured the money from the Department of Energy to fund the rebate-based initiative.
“The state is using its federal Home Energy Rebates funding to help its residents update their electrical panels and wiring, and upgrade to electric stoves and heat pump clothes dryers,” US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a news release.
The new program is geared toward low- and moderate-income residents. Rhode Islanders can learn if they qualify for the rebates through what Governor McKee’s office said was a free energy audit that can be conducted through a local Community Action Agency, entities that work on issues affecting economically disadvantaged communities.
If a resident qualifies for the funds, they can receive $2,500 for updated electric wiring, $4,000 for electric load service centers (the panels that distribute power in a home), and a little over $1,800 for energy-efficient appliances. Moderate-income households can secure $1,250 for electric wiring, $2,000 for electric load service centers, and $420 for energy-efficient appliances, McKee’s office said in a statement.
“This initiative is another positive step in reducing our state’s carbon emissions,” McKee said in the statement. “We are looking forward to the next phase of the program, when moderate-income households will have access to these rebates.”
The funds granted to Rhode Island are part of billions of dollars from the Inflation Reduction Act that President Joe Biden signed into law two years ago.
“I was very glad to help secure federal funding in Democrats’ historic Inflation Reduction Act to jumpstart Rhode Island’s Home Electrification and Appliance Rebates program, which was designed to help working families who are getting squeezed by high utility bills,” Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse said in a news release.
US Senator Jack Reed said “these rebates will lower household energy costs and fight climate change.”
Omar Mohammed can be reached at omar.mohammed@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter (X) @shurufu.
Gorham is asking the Board of Elections to declare Urso’s nomination void, which would leave Palocsik as the only Senate District 8 candidate on the Nov. 5 ballot. The Board of Elections is set to take up the matter when it meets at 2 p.m. Wednesday.
Rhode Island Democratic Party Chairwoman Liz Beretta-Perik said she took extra steps to ensure that the proper process was followed in replacing Cano last week, including a unanimous vote for Urso by the Senate District 8 Democratic Committee.
“We took a lot of extra steps that I thought were necessary in an incredibly short time period,” she said. “We have a letter from the District Committee. If they would like the letter, they can have the letter. That is what we based our decision off of.”
Cano, a Pawtucket Democrat, resigned from the Rhode Island Senate on Thursday amid State House buzz that she’s being vetted by President Biden’s administration for a job with the US Small Business Administration. Cano also withdrew from the Senate District 8 race, just two days after winning an uncontested Democratic primary on Tuesday.
On Friday, Rhode Island Democratic officials picked Urso, president and CEO of the Old Slater Mill Association in Pawtucket, to replace Cano on the ballot. Beretta-Perik sent a letter to Secretary of State Gregg M. Amore, saying the party executive committee had met and voted to submit Urso’s name ahead of Friday’s deadline.
But in a statement Monday, Palocsik announced that she is challenging Urso’s nomination.
“The upcoming hearing at the Board of Elections will reveal how the attempted coronation of a new candidate by the state Democrat Party leaders has failed,” she said. “I am running to represent the interest of the great people of Pawtucket; not the special interests, insiders and party bosses.”
Urso told the Globe that she provided all the information requested by party officials, and that the Senate District 8 committee did vote for her nomination.
“I believe the process was followed,” Urso said. “I am very excited to campaign for the office. It is a huge honor. I was not handed a Senate seat. I was given an opportunity to campaign and run for office, and that is what I’m doing. A coronation is when you install a king or queen. That is not what is happening.”
On Tuesday, Beretta-Perik provided a detailed explanation of the steps the party followed in replacing Cano.
She said she received a phone call at 3:15 p.m. Thursday from John E. Fleming Jr., chief of staff to Senate President Dominick J. Ruggerio. She said Fleming was in Secretary of State Gregg M. Amore’s office with Cano, Pawtucket Mayor Donald R. Grebien and others, and they alerted her that Cano was resigning.
Beretta-Perik said she spoke with the party’s longtime compliance consultant, Susann Della Rosa, who had also spoken with Deputy Secretary of State Rob Rock. Beretta-Perik said Della Rosa and Rock concurred that party bylaws gave her as the state party chair the power to pick a replacement for Cano.
“But I was uncomfortable with that,” Beretta-Perik said. “I didn’t think it was appropriate that I decide for District 8 who their Senate candidate would be.”
So Beretta-Perik said she asked that the Senate District 8 Democratic Committee vote on the matter, and the committee voted unanimously for Urso on Thursday night. The committee members voting were chairman Kevin Crawley, vice chairman Patrick J. McBurney, Laureen Grebien (who is married to Mayor Grebien), and state Representative Karen Alzate.
“We firmly believe Lori Urso can make an impact in the Senate 8 seat,” those committee members said in a statement. “She was unanimously backed by everyone to support her and vote for her in the upcoming election.”
Beretta-Perik said she asked Urso to send her a letter explaining why she wants to be the Senate candidate, and she asked her team to do a quick background check on Urso’s voting record, campaign contributions, and social media posts. The rapid vetting turned up no problems, she said.
At 11 a.m. Friday, the Rhode Island Democratic State Committee met in Zoom meeting and interviewed Urso for about 30 minutes, Beretta-Perik said. “She really did a very, very good job,” she said.
Beretta-Perik said Urso talked about her role in nonprofits such as the Old Slater Mill Association and the Pettaquamscutt Historical Society, in Kingston. She also talked about working as deputy chief of staff/senior policy adviser and director of executive operations for state General Treasurer James A. Diossa, who is Cano’s fiancé.
She said Diossa, who is the state Democratic Party’s first vice chairman, did not take part in the Zoom call with Urso or vote on her nomination. But the rest of the Democratic State Committee ended up voting unanimously for Urso.
And Beretta-Perik then sent a letter to Amore, stating, “The members of the Executive Committee of the Rhode Island Democratic State Committee met this morning. In accordance with Rhode Island General Laws 17-12-5 and 17-15-38 the committee voted to appoint the following candidate to fill the vacancy for Rhode Island Senate District 8: Lori Urso.”
Gorham said Section 17-15-38 does allow for a substitute nominee for a Senate seat such as this, but he argued that it allows only the Senate district committee to nominate Cano’s replacement.
“It is unclear why the Senate District Committee was not allowed to make the nomination,” Gorham wrote. “According to their report, they were duly organized and could easily have made the nomination, but they did not. In such circumstances, only the Senate District Committee, not the State Committee, may meet, vote, and file such a nomination. They did not, and it is now too late.”
Palocsik thanked Gorham for representing her in the matter before the Board of Elections.
Gorham, a former Republican state legislator from Coventry, said he was asked to represent Palocsik. “I have always believed the General Assembly would be better if there was more balance, and there isn’t,” he said. “It’s perhaps the most one-sided state legislative body in the country, and that is never good for a body politic.”
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him @FitzProv.
Michael Cimarusti. Photo by John Troxell.
The city of Providence has a twin flame in the form of a restaurant in Los Angeles. The restaurant’s name is literally Providence and it’s an homage to the seafood of the Ocean State. Executive chef and restaurateur Michael Cimarusti, the 2019 James Beard Award winner for Best Chef: West, leads a spectacular team at the West Coast restaurant that is named after the city where his father and grandparents are from. Cimarusti has run Providence for two decades, where he and his team have maintained two coveted Michelin stars for over a decade and recently added a newly minted Michelin green star. Cimarusti got his start with Wolfgang Puck and worked in some of New York City’s finest restaurants including Spago and Le Cirque.
Recently, I got to meet Cimarusti at a symposium for students at Johnson & Wales University’s School of Culinary Arts. While the chef himself graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, he spoke highly about culinary education at Johnson & Wales. Cimarusti addressed students and media representatives from around the country – including “Good Morning America,” Travel & Leisure and Saveur – about the connection between the restaurant and Rhode Island. Mainly, it’s the Ocean State’s incredible seafood that inspires him. The Providence and Warwick Convention and Visitors’ bureau and Cimarusti’s public relations team took the chef, his wife, team members and journalists from national media outlets on a three-day journey throughout Rhode Island to experience some of the best dining and drinking destinations in the state, including Oberlin, Gift Horse, Dune Brothers, Dolores, Persimmon, Sakonnet Vineyards, Sly Fox Den Too, Dolce & Salato and more.
“My roots in Rhode Island go way back. My grandparents were born in England but raised here in the Ocean State. My parents met here and were married here,” Cimarusti says. “My love of cooking and seafood, in large part, was found here in the Ocean State. My love of fishing is what inspired me and led me to the kitchen.”
He learned how to fish from his grandfather, Ted, and he later named his second restaurant, Connie & Ted’s in West Hollywood, after his grandparents, Constance and Edward, who lived in Providence all their lives. That restaurant serves clam cakes and Rhode Island-style chowder, stuffies, calamari, Portuguese fish stew, and yes, even coffee milk.
Providence restaurant, on the other hand, features an elaborate tasting-style menu that changes every few weeks. Sustainable fish species are key to the creation and execution of the cuisine. “We try to base every dish we do around a single ingredient,” Cimarusti says. “Of course, seafood is always at the core but then what we surround the seafood with is only good for a couple of weeks so the menu has to change all the time.” The renowned chef spoke at length about the importance of adhering to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program, and recommended students print out the guide and keep it in their pocket, or download the Seafood Watch app to check the status of specific seafood species before cooking with them. “What remains a constant at the restaurant is our staunch belief that sustainability has to be at the core of everything that we do,” Cimarusti says.
The interior of Providence restaurant. Photo by Daniel Collopy.
What first snapped him to attention was when Gourmet magazine editor Caroline Bates visited his restaurant and wrote a nice review, but commented that she couldn’t bring herself to eat the bluefin tuna, because the species was potentially threatened at the time. “She wanted to try it, but just couldn’t do it out of good conscience,” Cimarusti says. “From that moment, it became clear to me that it had to become part of what we do on a daily basis. Now it’s central to everything we do at the restaurant.”
Courses in Providence’s tasting menu. Photo by John Troxell.
Cimarusti learned everything he could about seafood sustainability and joined the Monterey Bay Aquarium Blue Ribbon Task Force, a group of chefs that assemble to discuss issues of sustainability. “It changed the way I think about the ingredients I purchase and the impact I might have as a chef,” he says. “I think this is something all of you as young culinarians need to think about: What is your impact on the world going to be and how will you affect the world?”
He spoke about environmental and sustainability issues, including how drought affects the wild salmon population, when fish can’t make it back to freshwater to spawn; and how some farmed salmon is raised in crowded small pens, which causes disease and releases excessive nitrogen, or effluent, that is then pumped into oceans. Some farmed salmon might even escape and breed with wild salmon, which weakens the species for generations to come. He also mentioned how lobster trapping may endanger the threatened population of Right Whales that can become entangled in lines that lead from surface buoys to traps at the bottom of the sea. While there are many issues with seafood, there’s also hope. Because of our seafood regulations and guidelines, he says the bluefin tuna population and swordfish are both rebounding.
Though bluefin’s status is improving, it’s still on his personal watch list. But Cimarusti is optimistic. He hopes to one day serve it without a guilty conscience. “Salmon is salmon or cod is cod or tuna is tuna is not the case,” he says. “There’s not one ingredient in the world that I want to cook with so badly that I’m willing to risk the health of the ocean or risk the extinction of species.”
Michael Cimarusti. Photo by John Troxell.
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