Rhode Island on Monday June 29, 2009

RI: With federal help, $7.8-billion budget goes to Carcieri
By Steve Peoples, The Providence Journal
The Senate approved a $7.8-billion state budget Friday night, sending the tax-and-spending bill for the budget year that begins Wednesday to the governor's desk and ending a 24-hour standoff.
Read More

RI: Health care still free for R.I. lawmakers
By Cynthia Needham, Philip Marcelo and Katherine Gregg, The Providence Journal
State lawmakers spared their own free health-care packages — costing up to $17,986 apiece — from last week's round of budget cuts across state government and the municipal aid landscape.
Read More

RI: State officials, business leaders discuss ways to boost R.I.'s green economy
By Alex Kuffner, The Providence Journal
WARWICK, R.I. — For months now, state policymakers, academics and business leaders have talked of the potential for the "green" economy to pull Rhode Island out of recession.
Read More

RI: Consumers falling victim to bogus health-care cards
By Richard Salit, The Providence Journal
When the flier promising "affordable health care" was faxed to the Westerly nursing home where she worked, Joan Albright thought of her ex-husband, who had no insurance and hadn't seen a doctor in years. So she gave him the phone number to call.
Read More

RI: R.I. law-enforcement officials say Senate bill outlawing indoor prostitution is flawed
By Lynn Arditi, The Providence Journal
Efforts to outlaw indoor prostitution stalled as state lawmakers went home for the weekend with no agreement on how to close a nearly 30-year-old "loophole" in the state law.
Read More

RI: R.I. may vote on striking 'plantations' from state's name
By Peter B. Lord, The Providence Journal
Voters next year may have the opportunity to do something that African-American legislators have been unable to accomplish for decades: strike the phrase "and Providence Plantations" from the state's name.
Read More

RI: R.I. House adjourns with bills unresolved
By Cynthia Needham, Steve Peoples and Katherine Gregg, The Providence Journal
With scores of bills still in limbo, the Rhode Island House of Representatives abruptly went into hiatus at 1 a.m. Saturday. Speaker William J. Murphy cited the need to cool off and return for at least a day in July, and again on a regular basis in September, to continue working through Assembly business.
Read More

US: National sex offender registry delayed a year
By The Associated Press, Argus Leader (Sioux Falls)
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. has given states and American Indian tribes another year to feed a national Internet database set up to protect children by showing where possible predators live and work.
Read More

RI: R.I. bill forces racing at struggling dog track
By Ray Henry, The Associated Press, The Boston Globe
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The Rhode Island House voted yesterday to force a financially struggling gambling hall to expand its schedule of greyhound races, even as its owners and Governor Donald L. Carcieri seek to end the money-losing races and protect millions of dollars in state income from its slot machines.
Read More

RI: Senate approves referendum on state name change
By Philip Marcelo, The Providence Journal
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- The full Senate on Friday approved adding a referendum on the November 2010 ballot asking voters whether they are willing to change Rhode Island's formal name from "State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations" to simply "Rhode Island."
Read More

RI: A casino's plan to open 24 hours a day draws ire
By Steve Friess, The New York Times
LINCOLN, R.I. -- Back in the 1940s, when Hal Perry's father worked on the construction site for the Lincoln Downs racetrack near the family's cattle farm, the Perrys never imagined the place would cause them any trouble.
Read More

Visit the Stateline.org Rhode Island Page

Read More