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This Hour: Latest Rhode Island news, sports, business and entertainment

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MISSING COLLEGE STUDENT

Police: Missing Pa. college student found unharmed

SKIPPACK, Pa. (AP) - Pennsylvania State Police say a missing college student from suburban Philadelphia has been found unharmed.

However, authorities on Thursday would not disclose where 21-year-old Matthew Royer was located.

State troopers say they won't comment further on the case. They say Royer's family has asked for privacy.

Royer disappeared earlier this month while returning home from the University of Rhode Island. They say he was seen leaving his apartment in Rhode Island on May 16.

Authorities say he was last seen the following day on surveillance video in Breinigsville, in eastern Pennsylvania.

Royer's parents had offered emotional pleas for their son to return home to Collegeville.

BROWN STUDENT-ASSAULT

More charges in fight involving Brown students

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - Upgraded charges have been filed against a Brown University wrestler accused of participating in a fight that left a university basketball player critically injured.

Twenty-2-year-old Dillon Ingham of New York, who is also a former Brown football player, was arraigned Wednesday on felony assault and simple assault charges. He had previously been charged with disorderly conduct.

Police say they are continuing to investigate the May 12 fight on the city's east side, which involved a group of Brown students and another group.

Twenty-4-year-old Tory Lussier of Vernon, Conn., was charged with assaulting Brown basketball player Joseph Sharkey, leaving him with serious head injuries.

Police say Ingham assaulted several men during the fight, including 24-year-old Joseph Ryan of North Providence, who suffered facial fractures and a detached retina.

FATAL MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT

Police ID Warwick man killed in motorcycle crash

WARWICK, R.I. (AP) - Police have identified the Warwick man killed after his motorcycle was involved in an accident with a truck.

Police say 27-year-old Joel Constantineau died at Rhode Island Hospital after the Tuesday accident. Authorities had initially said he was 25. Police don't believe he was wearing a helmet.

Constantineau was traveling west on Main Avenue when his motorcycle made contact with a truck leaving a gas station.

The truck driver, 58-year-old Sal Biscardi of Warwick, was not injured. Police say he will be cited for failing to yield the right of way when entering from a private road or drive.

Biscardi tells The Associated Press his truck was stopped and that Constantineau may not have seen him.

Police say it doesn't appear that speed or alcohol were factors.

SCHOOL CEILING COLLAPSE

Pawtucket school closed after ceiling collapse

PAWTUCKET, R.I. (AP) - A Pawtucket elementary school is closed for the rest of the week after a portion of the ceiling collapsed in a basement classroom.

School officials say a 6-feet-by-10-feet section of the ceiling collapsed on Wednesday at the Potter Burns Elementary School.

No one was in the area, and no one was hurt.

Superintendent Deborah Cylke tells WJAR-TV the initial engineering assessment was that nails failed under weight of the gypsum and plaster ceiling. She says there is similar construction in other areas of the school, and it needs to be inspected.

A building inspector is coming Thursday.

CLIFF WALK

Newport council OKs Cliff Walk plan, restrooms

NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) - The Newport City Council has endorsed scaled-back plans by the state for repairs to the Cliff Walk and also given the go-ahead for a contract for new permanent restrooms near one entrance to the walk.

The Newport Daily News reports the Wednesday vote means the state will now take the repair plan to the state's Coastal Resource Management Council. Once approved, the state can put the project out to bid. The repairs are being made after Superstorm Sandy damaged several parts of the walk.

An earlier plan had called for the state to install large boulders to shore up parts of the cliff near The Breakers, which likely would have affected a popular surf break there.

The restroom approval means permanent restrooms will replace portable toilets at Forty Steps.

LEAD POISONING

RI gets $2.5M to remove household lead hazards

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - The federal government is giving a Rhode Island housing agency $2.5 million to find and eliminate the threat of household lead paint.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced the grant Thursday. The money will pay for the removal of lead-based paint and other sources of lead in an estimated 200 housing units occupied by low-income families. Another 180 homes will receive lead hazard assessments.

The Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corp. will administer the funds, which are part of a national $98 million initiative to fight lead poisoning.

Lead paint was banned for residential use more than 30 years ago but it continues to be a leading source of lead poisoning, especially in children, who can suffer significant developmental and neurological problems as a result.

DUI LAWYER-DUI

RI lawyer loses license in DUI case sentencing

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) - A Providence lawyer who specializes in drunken driving cases has been sentenced to additional time without her driver's license, probation and alcohol counseling after pleading no contest to a DUI charge.

A spokeswoman for the Rhode Island attorney general says Layne Savage was sentenced in District Court Thursday. The judge ordered that Savage lose her license for seven months, retroactive to Jan. 28, and pay a $500 fine. Her vehicle must be installed with an ignition interlock for a year after she gets her license back. It was suspended in January.

Authorities say Savage's blood alcohol content was five times the limit when she crashed her SUV into a parked car in January.

Savage was convicted of refusing a breath test in a separate incident last year.

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