“I’m not actually a bully, but I hope I did a convincing job,” said one of the young actors from the short film “Robot and Boy” during a question-and-answer session Sunday at the Providence Children’s Film Festival. For the first time, the annual festival included an official program featuring ...
Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 P’17 signed an executive order Friday creating the Rhode Island Executive Climate Change Council. The newly formed council is charged with coordinating state environmental initiatives and advising Rhode Islanders and policymakers on how to combat the effects of climate ...
The Providence City Council approved a resolution in support of federal restrictions on the use of antibiotics in factory farms Feb. 6. The council may be the first in the country to pass such regulations. “It’s largely a symbolic act,” said Gus Fuguitt, spokesman for Food and Water Watch — ...
Many parents of Providence Public School District students have expressed concerns over student transportation issues this year, pointing to scheduling adjustments and budget cuts as problematic for elementary through high school students trying to get to school before the morning bell. The PPSD brought ...
General Assembly activities were cancelled last Thursday due to a snowstorm. Rhode Island legislators also have this week off for the Assembly’s mid-winter recess and will reconvene Tuesday. Several bills proposing marijuana regulation, early voting procedures and the establishment of an official ...
Senate Majority Leader Dominick Ruggerio, D-Providence and North Providence, and Rep. Brian Patrick Kennedy, D-Hopkinton and Westerly, introduced legislation to limit the information employers and schools can obtain from social media sites, according to a General Assembly press release. The bill prohibits ...
Mayor Angel Taveras has gained a slight lead over General Treasurer Gina Raimondo in Rhode Island’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, according to a poll released Feb. 12. Shedding new light on what could be a very close race for the governorship, the polls shows Taveras commands 31 percent of the ...
The Joint Municipal Shared Services Study Commission announced a new partnership with the Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions Feb. 3. The goal of the partnership is to evaluate the current effectiveness of Rhode Island’s public safety dispatch, according to a General Assembly ...
The General Assembly had money on its mind this week, reviewing legislation to change funding for toll roads in the state, reform the tax code and require Political Action Committees to disclose more information. Act on PACs A proposed bill, introduced by Rep. John Edwards, D-Tiverton and ...
The pilot phase of Providence Talks, the city’s program designed to measure and reduce the word gap between children from low- and high-income families, was launched Feb. 3. In the program, a recording device called a LENA Pro is attached to a child’s clothing to record conversations and measure ...
Mayor Angel Taveras reviewed the progress of his 20-point economic development action plan, ‘Putting Providence Back to Work,’ and other city-wide initiatives focused on education, health and public safety in his State of the City address yesterday, emphasizing his prognosis — that “the state ...
A project involving the construction of three fish ladders along the Ten Mile River has met delays due to site-specific complications at the Omega Pond Dam in East Providence. The project, which is expected to add 200,000 river herring and 25,000 American shad to the existing fish population, is now ...
Though activity on College Hill may have slowed during much of January as students enjoyed winter break, development of the I-195 land and surrounding Jewelry District area continued. The I-195 Redevelopment District Commission formally selected real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle to broker the land, ...
Mayor Angel Taveras unveiled a three-pronged proposal last week to close the gender wage gap as part of his gubernatorial campaign. The plan includes stricter penalties for businesses that violate pay equity laws and state workers’ pay equity audits and features a continued effort to appoint women ...
Over 20 drug overdose deaths have already been reported to the R.I. Department of Health in 2014, prompting widespread reflection on the public health and law enforcement mechanisms in place to handle opiate and other drug addictions. “Opiate dependence addiction has been a problem in Rhode Island ...
Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 P’17 proposed cutting $43 million from the state’s Medicaid program as part of a plan to resolve a projected $150 million budget deficit, according to the budget briefing on the governor’s website. The Medicaid proposal represents the only cut of more than $10 ...
CVS Caremark announced yesterday that it will halt the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products in its stores by October 2014. One of the largest drugstore companies in the U.S., CVS is headquartered in Woonsocket, R.I. and is the largest for-profit employer in Rhode Island. The decision is ...
Rhode Island received an F in “tobacco prevention” and a D in “cessation coverage,” despite receiving A grades for both its “smokefree air” and “cigarette tax,” in the American Lung Association’s annual report published Jan. 22. The report attributed the low grades to insufficient ...
Though activities were canceled for both houses Feb. 5 due to the snowstorm, the General Assembly started off the first week of the month by introducing legislation to support youth job programs, craft new drug regulations, increase services for the elderly and arrange a settlement for the 38 Studios ...
The latest figures from the U.S. Census Bureau released last month show that Rhode Island’s population increased by 1,207 people from July 2012 to July 2013 — the first increase in nearly a decade. Over the past 10 years, the smallest state in the country —though densely populated — underwent ...
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