Regional Briefs
Block Island sees benefits from first US offshore wind farm
NEW SHOREHAM (AP) — Block Island residents say the nation's first offshore wind farm has positively impacted tourism.
The Block Island Tourism Council says people are coming to the island to see the wind farm. That's helping local hospitality businesses and charter boats, which are taking people out to see it.
Deepwater Wind built five turbines 3 miles off Block Island, opening the first U.S. offshore wind farm a year ago.
Rhode Island Public Radio reports the farm now supplies power for nearly 2,000 people on the island.
Developer Deepwater Wind provided the island with a fiber optic cable for highspeed internet. Residents say they still don't have reliable service.
Resident Chris Willi says it could cost millions to get service to all residents and the island should've planned for connecting the cable earlier.
Ex-cop who sought nude pictures of children gets 5 years
PROVIDENCE (AP) — A former Massachusetts police sergeant who posted ads online asking people to send him nude pictures of their daughters has been sentenced to five years in prison.
Former Attleboro officer Richard Woodhead was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Providence after pleading guilty in August to attempted receipt of child pornography.
Prosecutors say a Rhode Island State Police detective noticed the ads last January and posed as an 8-year-old girl's guardian in order to engage in email conversations with Woodhead, during which he requested photos and described sexual relations he wanted to have with the child. He had similar telephone conversations with an undercover Homeland Security Investigations agent.
Woodhead's lawyer called the conversations "lurid sexual fantasies."
Woodhead retired after police and federal agents raided his home in April.
Charter school dispute leads to withholding of state funds
NORTH KINGSTOWN (AP) — Rhode Island is withholding some education funding from North Kingstown as the result of a tuition dispute between that school district and a charter school.
Education Commissioner Ken Wagner has decided to withhold an amount matching the tuition the district owes the Kingston Hill charter school. He also directed the money instead be paid directly to Kingston Hill.
The exact dollar amount was not disclosed.
The dispute began after the town requested additional information on enrollment at the school, including applications, waiting lists and acceptance letters.
Kingston Hill officials declined, accusing the district of trying to be an "arbiter" of its admission process.
Father sentenced for severely beating 7-year-old son
WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — A Massachusetts father who severely beat and abused his 7-year-old son has been sentenced to up to five years in prison.
Randall Lints, of Hardwick, was sentenced Thursday in Superior Court in Worcester. The 28-year-old Lints received a sentence of four to five years in state prison after pleading guilty to assault and battery on a child and two related counts. His girlfriend is awaiting trial on similar charges.
Officials say Lints' son was found unresponsive in his father's apartment in July 2015 suffering from severe bruising and malnourishment. Investigators say the boy weighed 38 pounds. The boy remains in state custody after several hospitalizations.
Lelling confirmed as US attorney for Massachusetts
BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts has a new top federal prosecutor.
Andrew Lelling was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts late Thursday.
William Weinreb has been serving as acting U.S. attorney since Carmen Ortiz stepped down from the role shortly before Republican President Donald Trump took office in January. Lelling has served in the Justice Department for 16 years and has worked as a prosecutor in both Massachusetts and the Eastern District of Virginia.
City councilors receive text death threats
FALL RIVER, Mass. (AP) — Police are investigating threatening text messages sent to three members of a Massachusetts city council.
The Herald News reports that Fall River Councilors Pam Laliberte-Lebeau, Cliff Ponte and Richard Cabeceiras received the messages around 8 p.m. Tuesday. All three members serve on the council's public safety committee.
Laliberte-Lebeau says the sender claimed her exboyfriend and brother would beat the councilors to death. The councilor says he is unfamiliar with the names of the two men the sender included in the text.
One of the two men contacted the newspaper, saying he is being harassed by an exgirlfriend. He says he has been in contact with Fall River police.