The Marijuana Policy Project, an organization focusing on drug policy reform, has set its sights on legalization in 10 new states including Rhode Island, following major victories in Colorado and Washington during the 2012 election. The MPP hopes Rhode Island will legalize marijuana through its legislature, ...
At least 30 hotel workers, labor allies and community organizers gathered yesterday at the Renaissance Hotel, chanting, drumming and shaking pebble-filled water bottles in loud protest of the hotel’s mistreatment of its employees. “There are two different fights — one for no more tax breaks, ...
The autonomous vessel Scout is currently in transit across the Atlantic Ocean, leaving its seven creators from Tiverton, R.I. waiting to see if the boat will break world records. Scout, a 12-foot-long boat lined with solar panels to power its voyage, is currently 798 miles off the coast of Rhode Island ...
Though some perceive hookah as a relatively innocuous indulgence, community organizations and lawmakers are exploring the connection between increased crime and hookah bars in Providence, as well as the negative health impacts of smoking hookah — a concern shared by the medical community. As the ...
Documents made public last week reveal that the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation hired legal representation last fall in response to inquiries from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission regarding the state’s $75 million loan to now-defunct 38 Studios, a video game development firm ...
Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 P’17 announced Sept. 4 he will not seek re-election in the 2014 gubernatorial race, presumably marking the end of his 27-year career in Rhode Island politics. Having served on the Warwick City Council, as mayor of Warwick and in the U.S. Senate, Chafee told reporters ...
Construction began on the state’s first capped-landfill solar field last month, the result of more than three years of planning. The former Forbes Street Landfill, which was in use from 1969 to 1979, will now house 13,000 solar panels and generate 3.7 megawatts of electricity — enough to power nearly ...
Rhode Island-based renewable energy company Deepwater Wind won the first federal auction for offshore wind development, paying $3.8 million for 164,000 acres of ocean on the Atlantic seaboard between Rhode Island and Massachusetts. The lease for the Deepwater Wind Energy Center has not been officially ...
Employers in Rhode Island can no longer ask job applicants about their criminal backgrounds, following the implementation of a law Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 P’17 signed July 15. “This provides basic protections from discrimination for people with a criminal record,” said Rep. Scott Slater, ...
A bill that would have allowed Rhode Islanders to purchase license plates inscribed with “Choose Life” was vetoed by Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 P’17 in July. Part of the revenue generated by the plates’ sales would have been donated to CareNet, a faith-based pregnancy resource center that ...
Rhode Island’s Department of Education and Department of Labor and Training will split a $670,000 federal Workforce Investment Act grant, Gov. Linoln Chafee’s ’75 P’14 P’17 office announced earlier this month. The U.S Department of Labor allocates grants through the Workforce Investment Act ...
The Providence Police Department has seen significant cuts to its federal funding in recent years, with grants decreasing by 92 percent — from $2.9 million in 2010-11 to $243,000 in 2012-2013. The department’s 2014 budget totaled $65.5 million, a $5 million increase over the previous year, but ...
Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 P’17 will not seek re-election next year, he announced Wednesday. “After talking to my family over the course of the summer, I thought the time was good now to tell Rhode Islanders, ‘You’re going to see Linc Chafee devoting all his time and energy to the issues ...
Rhode Island will completely eliminate the 7 percent sales tax on wine and spirits Dec. 1, though the state’s sales tax on beer will remain. The change was approved in June when the General Assembly passed the 2014 state budget. Rep. Jan Malik, D-Barrington, Warren, who owns a liquor store in the ...
Three years after winning a Race to the Top federal education grant, Rhode Island is in its last year of spending the $75 million award. As of August, Rhode Island has used $44.4 million of the grant, said Elliot Krieger, spokesperson for the Rhode Island Department of Education. Half of the grant ...
A University construction project in the Jewelry District could be delayed as a consequence of ongoing negotiations with public utilities company National Grid and the discovery of unsafe soil under building sites. The project, slated to begin in 2014 and announced by President Christina Paxson in ...
The University may undertake an extensive renovation of the Dynamo House, a former power plant in the Jewelry District, in partnership with the nursing programs at the University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College and a private developer, President Christina Paxson announced in a school-wide email ...
In the final hours of the 2013 legislative session, the Rhode Island Senate and House of Representatives passed a joint resolution calling on the state Board of Education to stop a controversial high school graduation requirement developed by Education Commissioner Deborah Gist, set to take effect at ...
Rhode Island became the 10th state in the country to begin offering marriage certificates to same-sex couples Aug. 1. Same-sex couples across the state celebrated the day with weddings and by trading in their “civil union” licenses for marriage certificates. The bill legalizing same-sex marriage ...
Gov. Lincoln Chafee ’75 P’14 P’17 announced May 29 that he will join the Democratic Party, setting the stage for what analysts anticipate will be a heated three-way Democratic primary during the 2014 gubernatorial election. Chafee was the nation’s only independent governor during his first ...
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