Rhode Island | featured news

Public-employee unions scored one victory after another Wednesday night when the Senate Labor Committee — including a senator who doubles as vice president of the National Education Association of Rhode Island — approved a swath of bills vehemently opposed by cities and towns to indefinitely lock in expired labor contracts and mandate a 42-hour overtime threshold for firefighters.

A Smithfield man who was missing since 9 a.m. Wednesday and was the subject of a Silver Alert was found late Wednesday at Fatima Hospital.Howard McGhean, 67, who doesn't speak, "appears to be fine," Smithfield police Sgt. Orlando Braxton said at about 11:30 p.m. How McGhean got to the hospital, Braxton didn't know, but it was old-fashioned police work, not the  statewide Silver Alert network that found him.Braxton said that when a person is missing, officers call all the [...]

PROVIDENCE — The Providence School Department's proposed budget for the coming year calls for several substantial cuts, including nearly $2 million in staff reductions, to make up a shortfall of $6.4 million.The budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1 represents an increase of $7.2 million, or 1.8% over this year's figure. It goes before the School Board's finance committee Wednesday night.Most of the increase in the $396-million budget comes from fixed costs, [...]

NEW YORK — The memoir Prince was working on at the time of his death is coming out Oct. 29.Random House confirmed Monday to The Associated Press that "The Beautiful Ones" will combine a Prince unfinished manuscript with rare photos, scrapbooks and lyrics. First announced just weeks before his 2016 death, the 288-page book will include an introduction by Dan Piepenbring, whom Prince had chosen as a collaborator. The memoir is an exclusive [...]

PROVIDENCE (AP) — A federal government group that seeks to keep whales safe from threats is meeting in Rhode Island this week to try to find solutions to save the North Atlantic right whale.The right whales are among the rarest marine mammals, numbering about 411. Atlantic Large Whale Take Reduction Team is holding its meeting in Providence from Tuesday to Friday. The team was created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to reduce injuries and deaths that [...]

Rhode Island's legal sports betting business had its best month yet in March, but still fell short of the profits the state anticipated when it legalized athletic wagering last year.Sports Book Rhode Island made $1,548,230 in March, a high-volume month that includes the NCAA basketball tournament, according to figures from the Rhode Island Lottery released Monday. It was a significant improvement from February, [...]

NEW BEDFORD — Bounced paychecks and unpaid bills have thrown a New Bedford nursing home into crisis.Paychecks have been late for the last two pay periods at Bedford Gardens in the city's far North End. When Friday's pay finally arrived on Monday, checks began bouncing, director Steven Haase said."Each day that these paychecks don't clear, who is going to take care of my patients?" he said.Nurses' [...]

PROVIDENCE — As shopping center owners see weakness among their retail tenants, many are turning to fitness gyms to beef up their portfolios, experts on the local commercial real estate market say.As big-box stores close, many of them are being replaced by gyms, according to two Boston-based spokesmen for CoStar Group, a commercial real estate data firm headquartered in Washington, D.C.In fact, CoStar market analyst Peter Conway said, gyms lead all other new tenants in [...]

PROVIDENCE — On the day before an anticipated House vote on a previously vetoed bill to extend expired municipal and teacher contracts indefinitely, Johnston Mayor Joseph Polisena served warning: "If this passes, we may as well shut off the lights, give the unions the key and give them the checkbook.""This is a lifetime contract bill. That's [...]

Stop & Shop stores around the region reopened at 8 a.m. Monday after a tentative contract agreement ended an 11-day strike. The stores will return to normal hours after Monday's opening, store spokeswoman Jennifer Brogan said.