By Jason McLure

(Reuters) – An aging accused Mafia boss was sentenced on Friday to 5-1/2 years in prison for terrorizing and extorting protection payments from strip clubs around Providence, Rhode Island.

Luigi “Louie” Manocchio, 84, also known as “The Old Man,” “The Professor” and “Baby Shacks,” pleaded guilty in federal court earlier this year to one count of racketeering conspiracy, according to a statement from the U.S. Justice Department.

May 8 (Reuters) – Vermont will be the first state to outlaw
a controversial oil and gas drilling method known as fracking
when Governor Peter Shumlin signs a bill banning the practice, a
largely symbolic move given the state’s apparent lack of energy
reserves.

Hydraulic fracturing has helped companies tap potentially
decades of gas supply and huge amounts of oil from previously
inaccessible shale formations dotted across the United States in
recent years.

By Jason McLure

(Reuters) – An 83-year-old artist known for his block letter “LOVE” design that became a symbol of the anti-war movement in the 1960s is being sued by a Monaco-based art dealer for renouncing the authenticity of sculptures once valued as high as $1 million.

Beginning in 2008, art buyer Joao Tovar paid $481,625 for 10 sculptures of the word PREM, a Sanskrit term meaning “love,” from a one-time business partner of renowned pop artist Robert Indiana, Tovar said in the lawsuit filed in superior court in Rockland, Maine.

LITTLETON, New Hampshire (Reuters) – The parents of a New Hampshire teenager who was assaulted and forcibly tattooed on the buttocks by four older students during school hours have filed suit against the school district.

Michael and Tammy Austin are seeking unspecified damages from the district in Concord, New Hampshire, which they say failed to provide a safe environment for their son and to protect him from bullying in the May 2010 incident.

By Jason McLure

(Reuters) – Brown University agreed to nearly double its payments to Rhode Island’s cash-strapped capital city, answering the Providence mayor’s plea for help and staving off a municipal bankruptcy.

With more than $1 billion of property in the city and a $2.5 billion endowment, Rhode Island’s sixth-largest employer had come under pressure to increase its almost $4 million annual payments to its hometown city, most of which are ‘voluntary contributions’ because Brown is exempt from most property taxes as a non-profit.

LITTLETON, New Hampshire (Reuters) – A letter written by the British bandleader on the Titanic to his parents in England five-days before the ship struck an iceberg and sank a century ago sold for nearly $155,000 in an online auction on Thursday.

An unnamed U.S. investment group bought the letter written by Wallace Hartley, 33, who led the ship’s eight-piece band, which played ragtime and other tunes to calm the passengers as the ship slowly slipped beneath the waves of the north Atlantic.

LITTLETON, New Hampshire (Reuters) – The man suspected in the fatal shooting of a New Hampshire police chief days away from retirement was found dead at the scene of a drug raid, along with a woman who was with him, officials said Friday.

Greenland Police Chief Michael Maloney was killed and four officers were wounded Thursday night when gunfire erupted as they tried to execute a search warrant in the suburban community outside the seaside city of Portsmouth.

LITTLETON, New Hampshire (Reuters) – A New Hampshire woman accused of lying about her role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide was released from prison on Thursday, nearly a month after her immigration fraud trial ended in a mistrial.

Beatrice Munyenyezi, 41, walked out of federal prison in New Hampshire after spending 21 months behind bars following her arrest for allegedly failing to disclose on immigration forms she had participated in killings and other war crimes during the genocide that left 800,000 dead in the central African nation. She has denied any involvement in genocide.

LITTLETON, New Hampshire (Reuters) – A New Hampshire woman accused of lying about her role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide to win asylum in the United States will face a second trial on immigration fraud charges following an earlier mistrial.

Federal prosecutors on Friday notified a court in Concord that they would not drop charges against Beatrice Munyenyezi, 41, who they accuse of helping to organize mass killings and rapes in the southern Rwandan town of Butare 18 years ago.

NORTHFIELD, Vermont (Reuters) – When Joshua Fontanez began training as a cadet at Norwich University in 2008, he kept silent about his sexuality for fear of being expelled from the military school’s Reserve Officer Training Corps.

Now after the repeal of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, a gay pride group he helped found is staging a “Queer Prom” and a “Condom Olympics” as part of the first gay pride week at any of the nation’s public and private military academies. Events kicked off on Monday.