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 ...
The Plastic Waste Reduction Act was reintroduced Thursday to the Rhode Island House of Representatives by Rep. Maria Cimini, D-Providence. The bill would ban the dispersal of many plastic bags in Rhode Island by January 2015 for large retailers and by January 2016 for small businesses. During the last ...
Attorney General Peter Kilmartin announced he had drafted legislation making it a felony to “electronically disseminate sexually explicit images to minors” Dec. 18, according to a General Assembly press release. The bill will likely be introduced into the General Assembly by Kilmartin’s allies. This ...
Lorne Adrain, former chairman of the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education and managing director at the wealth management firm Ballentine Partners, formally launched his mayoral campaign yesterday morning at the Friendship Cafe in South Providence. Adrain became the fifth Democratic ...
About two weeks after Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 P’17 highlighted education as a major priority in his proposed 2015 budget, Commissioner of Education Deborah Gist announced the results of the 2013 New England Common Assessment Program exam in her annual State of Education address Jan. 30. Though ...
Rep. Dennis Canario, D-Portsmouth, Little Compton, Tiverton, has introduced a bill that would require food containing genetically modified ingredients to be labeled “Produced with Genetic Engineering,” according to a General Assembly press release. The bill was heard Wednesday by the House Committee ...
Pay it forward, pay it back Legislation introduced Tuesday by House Speaker Gordon Fox, D-Providence, and Rep. Joseph McNamara, D-Warwick and Cranston, would create a pilot program in which participating students attending in-state colleges or universities would not pay tuition or fees until after graduation. The ...
As the Rhode Island gubernatorial race heats up, campaign finance politics are taking center stage as two of the leading Democratic candidates speak out against super Political Action Committees. General Treasurer Gina Raimondo and Providence Mayor Angel Taveras, the two front runners in the Democratic ...
Earlier this month, Rep. Donna Walsh, D-Charlestown, South Kingstown, Westerly, New Shorham, proposed a bill that would “attack the food waste issue” by gradually requiring large facilities — such as dining halls, hospitals and supermarkets — to donate their waste or divert it to compost facilities, ...
Members of the Providence Student Union gathered yesterday at the Statehouse to protest the New England Common Assessment Program, a state-wide standardized test recently incorporated into high school graduation requirements. Student representatives from Hope High School, The Met School and Dr. Jorge ...
Clay Pell and Michael Solomon formally launched their respective gubernatorial and mayoral campaigns over the past two days. Solomon became the sixth candidate hoping to fill Angel Taveras’ vacant seat as Providence mayor, joining a field of four fellow Democrats and one Republican. Pell is the ...
As part of Providence’s master plan to expand bicycle travel, the city is negotiating a contract for a new bike share program that would link downtown with College Hill, Federal Hill, the Jewelry District and various places on the east and west sides, wrote Toby Shepherd, director of policy in the ...
A new teacher evaluation bill introduced by Rep. William O’Brien, D-North Providence, could spell the end of annual assessments of teachers in Rhode Island. Under the new system proposed by O’Brien, only teachers with poor efficacy ratings would be evaluated yearly. Teachers deemed “highly effective” ...
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