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July 2008 Archives
4:00 PM Thu, Jul 31, 2008 | Permalink |
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By John E. Mulligan, Washington bureau Email
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Rachael Bornstein, a longtime stalwart of Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy's staff, is moving downstairs in the Cannon House Office Building to run Rep. James R. Langevin's legislative shop. "I am delighted that Rachael has decided to come......
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2:26 PM Thu, Jul 31, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
By Katherine Gregg Journal State House Bureau While Governor Carcieri hammers the need to reduce state spending, his Department of Administration has posted an opening for a newly created job for a public relations person -- at a salary of......
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9:25 AM Thu, Jul 31, 2008 | Permalink |
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By John E. Mulligan, Washington bureau Email
WASHINGTON - Despite strong support in the House and the Senate, a popular bill to improve mental health insurance coverage has stalled once more, leaving Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy and other backers determined to renew their push for the legislation......
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3:45 PM Wed, Jul 30, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
Journal photo / Kathy Borchers C-SPAN's "campaign bus" stops at Warwick City Hall toay, as part of an effort to get people interested in presidential campaign issues. The 45-foot mobile production studio is also on the trail to promote......
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10:25 AM Wed, Jul 30, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Jack Perry Email
WASHINGTON -- Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed's long-sought housing initiative for poor people has become law. A fund for the construction and repair of rental housing for the poor is at the heart of the housing rescue bill that President......
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4:16 PM Tue, Jul 29, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Scott MacKay Email
CSPAN's "Road to the White House'' bus tour will land in Warwick this Wednesday afternoon. The bus, a 45-foot mobile studio used in the cable network's coverage of the presidential campaign, will be parked at Warwick City Hall from 2......
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4:04 PM Tue, Jul 29, 2008 | Permalink |
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By John E. Mulligan, Washington bureau Email
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse and two Democratic colleagues today called for the resignation of Stephen Johnson, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, charging that he based key policy decisions "on political considerations'' rather than on the scientific evidence. Whitehouse and Senators......
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10:24 AM Mon, Jul 28, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Jack Perry Email
Eileen Slocum, 30-year advocate and political fundraiser, died yesterday at Newport Hospital, according to her son. She was 92. Slocum, who hosted fundraisers in her Bellevue Avenue mansion and opened her gardens -- designed by Frederick Law Olmstead -- to......
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5:24 PM Fri, Jul 25, 2008 | Permalink |
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By John E. Mulligan, Washington bureau Email
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, the object of heightened speculation this week after his tour of Afghanistan and Iraq at the side of Barack Obama, today played down the suggestion that the Democratic presidential candidate would consider him as......
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3:12 PM Fri, Jul 25, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Peter Phipps Email
By Cynthia Needham, Journal State House Bureau Even a topic as weighty as immigration deserves a little levity. So here's today's dose. Rhode Islanders frustrated that the Assembly did not pass a single immigration proposal this year -- either cracking......
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1:36 PM Fri, Jul 25, 2008 | Permalink |
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By John E. Mulligan, Washington bureau Email
Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy's signature mental health bill has found a legislative vehicle that could speed its progress through the Senate, where the measure has been on hold weeks. The chairman of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Max Baucus,......
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6:39 AM Thu, Jul 24, 2008 | Permalink |
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By John E. Mulligan, Washington bureau Email
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse favors a Senate measure that would sharpen the regulatory tools that can be used to discourage market speculation in energy products. "Families in Rhode Island and across the country are having to choose between filling their......
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4:46 PM Wed, Jul 23, 2008 | Permalink |
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By John E. Mulligan, Washington bureau Email
Representatives James R. Langevin and Patrick J. Kennedy voted Wednesday in the commanding House majority that passed legislation intended to rescue failing mortgages and bolster confidence in the giant companies that handle much of the nation's housing credit. Langevin......
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3:48 PM Wed, Jul 23, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Susan Areson Email
By Cynthia Needham Journal State House Bureau Gary Alexander for Governor in 2010? Don't bet on it. Talk of the Department of Human Services director staging a possible run for the top job began swirling after a New Hampshire politics......
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5:26 PM Tue, Jul 22, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
AP photo / Jae C. Hong Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., left, accompanied by Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., second from right, and Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., right, speaks during a news conference at the citadel in Amman,......
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11:34 AM Tue, Jul 22, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
By Cynthia Needham Journal State House Bureau Why quit while we're at it? Also in the new jobs department, Jennifer Wood, Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts' policy director, has taken over as her chief of staff, following the somewhat mysterious departure......
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11:31 AM Tue, Jul 22, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
By Cynthia Needham Journal State House Bureau And speaking of new jobs, the state's sometimes beleaguered Division of Motor Vehicles has a new staffer. The agency announced Friday that Sara Rebecca "Sally" Strachan has been appointed associate director of Revenue......
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11:29 AM Tue, Jul 22, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
By Katherine Gregg Journal State House Bureau For some State House employees, the General Assembly's decision to wrap up the year during an unusual Saturday session was a bonanza. They didn't get overtime pay. But for every hour they worked......
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6:54 PM Fri, Jul 18, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
Several challenges have been lodged on decisions to certify -- or not certify -- certain candidates for the Rhode Island election ballot, Secretary of State Ralph Mollis's office said. The deadline to challenge was 4 p.m. today for candidates in......
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3:28 PM Fri, Jul 18, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
MEXICO CITY -- The Mexican government says it will honor U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy for his defense of immigrant rights. Mexico announced Friday it will award the Massachusetts Democrat the Aguila Azteca, the highest honor the government can bestow on......
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3:08 PM Thu, Jul 17, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
Q.B.P. Tomorrow, those are the most important letters of the alphabet for Rhode Island candidates, political junkies and taxpayers alike. They stand for "qualified ballot position," which means a candidate for offices small and large, from town races to Congress,......
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2:37 PM Thu, Jul 17, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
He turned 4 and learned he had cancer. The disease ended the life of Warwick's Benjamin Haight in August 2003. He was 9. Now, legislation sponsored by U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, R-R.I., to expand childhood cancer prevention research, inspired in......
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2:28 PM Thu, Jul 17, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
The turf wars are under way in a crowded District 9 state Senate race, where the powerful Senate Finance Committee Chairman Stephen Alves must survive a three-way Democratic primary and a contested general election to earn an eighth consecutive term......
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6:22 PM Wed, Jul 16, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Susan Areson Email
Another state employee union has voted to ratify a new four-year agreement with the Carcieri administration, despite what the local president describes as widespread opposition. Local 400, the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, voted Tuesday 62 percent to......
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8:20 AM Wed, Jul 16, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Jack Perry Email
WASHINGTON -- The temperature will be approaching the 90s this morning by the time members of the New England House delegation gather near the Capitol to warn about next winter's freeze - and how to help the poor to weather......
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1:28 PM Tue, Jul 15, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Scott MacKay Email
Christine Heenan of East Providence, a former aide in the Bill Clinton White House, was today named vice president for government, community and public affairs at Harvard University. Heenan, 41, has been most recently president of Clarendon Group, a Providence-based......
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1:23 PM Tue, Jul 15, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
WASHINGTON -- The nation's leading presidential candidates took verbal shots at each other again today over the Iraq war. Democrat Barack Obama pledged anew this morning that as president he would end the Iraq war, withdrawing American combat troops by......
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4:38 PM Mon, Jul 14, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
PROVIDENCE -- State House Room 140 is dark today. Its occupant for the last 17 years, Patricia Collins, died yesterday after a long battle with cancer, according to the governor's office. Collins, 63, of West Warwick, had served as the......
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12:40 PM Mon, Jul 14, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
EAST PROVIDENCE -- U.S. Sen. Jack Reed said this morning he was flattered by mounting speculation that he may be a vice presidential contender on Barack Obama's ticket but said he was not interested in the job. At the ribbon-cutting......
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11:48 AM Mon, Jul 14, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Scott MacKay Email
Ralph Nader, the onetime consumer advocate and perennial candiate for president, today filed petitions to run as an independent candidate for president in Rhode Island. Nader, 74, a Connecticut native, ran unsucessfully for president in 2000 and 2004. Nader submitted......
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7:27 PM Fri, Jul 11, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
Two political Web sites are reporting that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will be traveling to Iraq -- and taking Rhode Island's Jack Reed with him. Citing an unidentified source familiar with details of the trip, thehill.com said Obama would......
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3:52 PM Fri, Jul 11, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
Governor Carcieri is headed to Philadelphia tomorrow to talk with his fellow governors about the current economic climate, energy alternatives, and teacher quality during a National Governors Association meeting that is also the anniversary of what is called the first-ever......
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3:09 PM Fri, Jul 11, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Scott MacKay Email
Marisa Quinn has been appointed vice president of public affairs and university relations at Brown University. Quinn, of Jamestown, was an aide to former U.S. Sen. Claiborne Pell and former New Jersey governor James Florio. Quinn also served as chief......
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2:52 PM Fri, Jul 11, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Scott MacKay Email
U.S House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the first woman House speaker, visits Rhode Island next week for a series of events, including highlighting early childhood education, speaking to labor union members and raising money to help Democrats kep control of the......
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12:31 PM Fri, Jul 11, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
Today is the deadline for prospective political candidates to submit enough Rhode Island voters' signatures in order to get on this year's ballot. The signatures, however, must be validated, or certified, in order to count. The thresholds range from 50......
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4:18 PM Thu, Jul 10, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Susan Areson Email
WASHINGTON -- The Senate today cleared one of the last obstacles to voting on a landmark housing bill intended to alleviate the mortgage crash, fix regulatory problems that helped to cause it and -- in a provision engineered in part......
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5:51 PM Wed, Jul 09, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
WASHINGTON -- Rhode Island's Senate delegation split today as the Senate voted overwhelmingly for an overhaul of the nation's foreign intelligence-gathering system, giving President Bush a hard-fought victory on the question of legal immunity for telecommunications companies that helped him......
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4:25 PM Wed, Jul 09, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Susan Areson Email
WASHINGTON -- The Senate burst into spontaneous ovation minutes ago when Sen. Edward M. Kennedy made his first appearance since being stricken in May with symptoms of what proved to be a malignant brain tumor. The business at hand was......
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4:20 PM Wed, Jul 09, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Susan Areson Email
House Speaker William J. Murphy, D-West Warwick, is now running for reelection unopposed, after his only challenger withdrew from the race. West Warwick Democrat Michael Lombardi, 29, took out candidacy papers to challenge Murphy in a Democratic primary, then changed......
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5:16 PM Tue, Jul 08, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
PROVIDENCE - Former U.S. Sen. Lincoln Chafee waded back into the state political arena recently, in an effort to convince Rhode Island lawmakers to support a movement to change the way U.S. presidents are selected. His quiet, letter-writing campaign came......
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10:34 AM Tue, Jul 08, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Scott MacKay Email
Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean, the former Vermont governor, travels to Rhode Island Wednesday to speak at a fundraiser for Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign. Dean is scheduled to speak at an Obama fundraiser at 6 p.m. at the Peerless......
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6:11 PM Mon, Jul 07, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Susan Areson Email
Buddy's in the news again. But this time, he's featured in a national magazine. Governing, which distributes news on state and local politics to an estimated 275,000 readers each month, featured a cover story on public corruption in its July......
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2:16 PM Mon, Jul 07, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
Political Scene caught up with a couple new faces in the State House last week. Governor Carcieri's new spokeswoman, Amy Kempe, started Tuesday, occupying the first-floor office that had been home to the governor's longtime spokesman, Jeff Neal. In between......
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2:10 PM Mon, Jul 07, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
The governor's office scrambled to issue veto messages last week, in part because of an unusual move by the state Senate. Late Friday afternoon, six days after the Assembly adjourned for the year, the Senate transmitted 201 bills -- its......
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11:50 AM Mon, Jul 07, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
Don't miss Governor Carcieri tonight on Fox TV. The governor is scheduled to appear with Bill O'Reilly on The O'Reilly Factor. The interview will be taped early in the day and aired at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m., according to......
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2:34 PM Thu, Jul 03, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Jack Perry Email
Against its own lawyer's advice, the State Board of Elections voted today that the five Republican candidates appointed to General Assembly races by state GOP chairman Giovanni Cicione were not valid because the names had been filed with the Secretary......
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7:36 PM Wed, Jul 02, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
PROVIDENCE -- State Rep. Steven F. Smith, D-Providence, made an informal, but significant announcement on Federal Hill this afternoon when spotted outside Venda Ravioli. The 20-year State House veteran, who also serves as the president of the Providence teachers' union,......
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7:21 PM Wed, Jul 02, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
Victor Profughi is at it again. The head of Rhode Island College's Bureau of Government Research and Services released his latest poll yesterday that reports the highest level of discontent among Rhode Islanders in recent memory. As reported in today's......
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7:12 PM Tue, Jul 01, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
PROVIDENCE -- Former Secretary of State and four-star general Colin Powell said this evening he has no interest in running for vice president should presumptive Republican nominee John McCain ask him, as has been speculated recently in media reports. "I......
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5:10 PM Tue, Jul 01, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
Just before 4 p.m. today, state Republican Party Chairman Giovanni Cicione said the party filed a motion with the state Supreme Court seeking an emergency order to force the issuance of nominating papers to five Republican candidates now in limbo.......
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