Starbucks this week named the 600 stores it will close around the country and no Rhode Island locations appeared on the list. Starbucks loyalists in Massachusetts are not so lucky, as the company will close seven stores in the Bay State, included ones in the Emerald Square mall in North Attleboro and Dartmouth Mall in North Dartmouth.

The chain said it will also close five stores in Connecticut, two in Maine and one in New Hampshire. The state with the most closings is California, with 88, followed by Florida with 59. Washington, where Starbucks is based, will lose 19 stores. The company hopes to be finished with the closings by March.

The Starbucks Web site lists 19 stores or kiosks in Rhode Island, with a 20th on the way in Warwick.

During a brief hearing this morning, Judge Michael A. Silverstein told a courtroom packed with lawyers and state officials that he has held five sets of interviews so far in his search for someone to take on the role of "co-special master" of the Woonsocket hospital.

Silverstein made his remarks at the conclusion of a presentation by Jonathan N. Savage, the Pawtucket lawyer the judge chose last month to temporarily oversee Landmark.

Landmark petitioned the court to clear the way for a potential merger with another hospital.

The hospital has been losing money for many years. At the end of the last fiscal year, Landmark was $7.2 million in the hole.

According to Savage, the hospital owed about $6 million to various creditors before last month's receivership petition and has accumulated bills of approximately $1.1 million more since then.

Landmark has $7 million in cash on hand and about $2.5 million in reserve accounts to make principal and interest payments on $12.5 million in outstanding bonds, he said.

Savage will continue as "special master" of Landmark at least until next Thursday, when Silverstein said, he will choose from among the candidates he's interviewed for the role.

The plan, originally filed in May, was modified to incorporate a settlement with 850 workers who were fired without what they claim was the 60-days' notice required in federal law.

The new plan would give the former employees, whose claims they say total $6 million, a recovery of between 5 percent and 15 percent.

Unsecured creditors with claims totaling $25 million are projected to see a 6 percent recovery. Previous versions of the disclosure statement pegged their dividend at 10 percent.

If the bankruptcy court approves the disclosure statement, creditors may vote on the plan in advance of a confirmation hearing, where the bankruptcy judges looks at any objections and decides if the plan complies with law.

The disclosure statement says secured claims have been fully paid. Creditors will be paid by a liquidating agent from available cash after the plan is approved.

Quaker sold most of the assets for $27 million to Gordon Brothers Group.

The petition by the Fall River showed assets of $155.2 million against $60.4 million in debt, including $32.7 million owed to secured creditors. Quaker halted operations in July 2007 before the Chapter 11 filing. The company blamed the filing on competition from Asia.

The case is In re Quaker Fabric Corp., 07-11146, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware (Wilmington).

Profit from continuing operations climbed to $261 million, or $1.03 a share, from $215 million, or 85 cents, a year earlier.

Sales rose 21 percent to $3.92 billion. Earnings exceeded the company's own forecast and the 96-cent average estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

"This week, as Rhode Islanders face the prospect of the summer's second heat wave, I am already thinking about the strain skyrocketing home heating oil costs will place on hardworking families," said Langevin, in a statement. "Our neighbors should not have to decide between heating their homes and putting food on the table as winter hits."

The delegation supported Pelosi's call for President Bush to immediately release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Secondly, a letter sent by the delegation to Pelosi asks her to consider legislation or include provisions in a second economic stimulus package that will increase funding and expand eligibility for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

Langevin is a cosponsor of legislation introduced last week that would allow the Secretary of Energy to release heating oil from the Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve in the coming winter if the price of home heating oil remains over $4 per gallon. Proceeds from the sale of reserve supplies would fund LIHEAP and the Weatherization Assistance Program.

For a typical home, that means a $9.60 increase in an average monthly gas bill and a $16.67 increase in an average monthly electricity bill. In all it adds about $330 to yearly utility bills.

New gas rates are usually implemented on Nov. 1, but National Grid sought for this rate hike to stand for 16 months. The new rate holds until Jan. 1

Find energy-saving tips from the experts.

Extra: What would you say to the Public Utilities Commission? Take the projo.com survey.

-- projo.com staff writer Brandie Jefferson

After a brief uptick in April, the Current Conditions Index in May plunged back to its lowest value in the index's 25-year history.

Eleven out of 12 indicators deteriorated, as the unemployment rate spiked to 7.2 percent and consumers hit by rising food and fuel prices cut back on spending, causing retail sales to plunge, according to the index's manager, University of Rhode Island professor of economics, Leonard Lardaro.

"Even during the horrible year of the (1991) banking crisis,'' Lardaro said, "it wasn't statistically as bad as this.''

After a brief uptick in April, the index in May fell back to its previous value of 8, where it had been during four of the last five months. Prior to this year, the only time the index fell that low was in April 1991.

The index measures the behavior of 12 economic indicators each month and compares them with what they were the same month a year ago. The changes indicate whether Rhode Island's economy is growing, contracting or stagnant. Any indicator above the neutral value of 50 means the economy is growing, anything below means it's shrinking.

-- Journal staff writer Lynn Arditi

In April, the index climbed to 17 -- prompting Lardaro, the index's manager, to suggest there was reason to hope that the economy might begin to turn around. Two indicators in April improved, albeit slightly. Retail sales, which had been declining, "squeaked by," and manufacturing wages also rose, according to the index.

But any hope of a near-term recovery was dashed in May when the index fell back to a value of 8.

The housing market meltdown has slowed the rate of house construction, with single-unit building permits down 33.3 percent in May. The building slowdown, however, could be viewed as a "bright spot," Lardaro said, because it may help the state reduce its bloated inventory of unsold houses.

The labor market also continued to deteriorate in May, with layoffs driving up new unemployment claims by 14.3 percent over May 2007, although the number of claims has improved during the past three months.

The share of people who ran out of their unemployment benefits -- "benefit exhaustions" -- climbed 31.9 percent compared with May 2007.

Employment service jobs, a "leading labor market indicator" that includes temporary help, fell by double digits for the fourth consecutive month. Employment service jobs tend to decline when the economy is contracting and rise when it's growing.

Government employment also shrank, and is expected to continue to do so as the state agencies begin to lay off employees to bring spending in line with state budget cuts.

Meanwhile, the size of the labor force in May shrank, which suggests that some residents either gave up looking for work or got jobs in other states.

Not surprisingly, the weak job market along with rising food and fuel costs has caused consumer sentiment to plummet and spending to shrink. Retail sales fell 10.6 percent in May, though the overall level of sales remained relatively high, Lardaro said.

"We're in the second stage of a recession,'' Lardaro said. "This winter it could get even worse ..."

The only indicator that improved in May -- the reason that the monthly index remained above zero -- was manufacturing wages. But that, too, could be short lived. Total manufacturing hours in May fell at its most rapid rate since September 2002, as both the workweek and employment declined.

The poll of 474 New Bedford residents showed 53% support hosting a casino, 20% oppose, and 27% are undecided. The poll, conducted July 9 to 11 by Northeast Resorts Group, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.6 percent.

Northeast Resorts Group, based in East Longmeadow, controls a 35-acre site including waterfront land in the Hicks-Logan section of New Bedford, and has announced plans to develop the site as a potential destination casino.

Northeast Resorts, along with local partner Peter Picknelly of Peter Pan Bus Lines, also has an exclusive development agreement with the Mohegan Sun to develop Northeast's 152-acre site adjacent to Exit 8 of the Massachusetts Turnpike in Palmer, Mass. as a casino.

Clyde W. Barrow, director of the Center for Policy Analysis, said New Bedford residents have consistently said in two polls done in conjunction with the center that they are in favor of a casino in New Bedford.

American provides aerial equipment, forklifts and other rental equipment serving commercial construction contractors in Providence, Woburn, Mass., and New Britain, Conn. American is one of the largest independent aerial equipment rental companies in New England with annual revenues approximating $19 million, of which nearly 90% are rental revenues.

The acquisition is expected to be neutral to RSC's earnings per share in 2008 and modestly accretive in 2009. RSC Equipment Rental is the operating entity for RSC Holdings Inc. (RRR:NYSE)

Carl Schlicker, an executive with Ahold's Giant Food division in Carlisle, Penn., replaces Jose Alvarez, as head of Stop & Shop. The supermarket chain is the market leader in Rhode Island, with 50.1 percent of sales, according to TDLinx, a service of The Nielsen Company.

Stop & Shop and Giant have been reducing prices on goods as part of an extended program to lure back shoppers from rival discount chains. Stores in the Giant chain also have been undergoing renovations recently.

Both programs were led by Alvarez, who previously served as executive vice president for supply chain and logistics for Ahold's American supermarket chains. Alvarez has been appointed executive vice president of Ahold. He will be responsible for global business development for Ahold, reporting to Ahold CEO John Rishton.

Stop & Shop/Giant-Landover operates more than 560 stores throughout the Eastern United States, including 378 Stop & Shop stores in the Northeast.

Once home to an Apex store, the acreage is being redeveloped by Johnston-based Carpionato Corp.

A Lowe's home-improvement store opened early last year and a Stop & Shop supermarket is due to open by the end of this year. No tenants have been announced for the south building.

Redevelopment work was delayed for a time while the city awaited an appraisal on land it owned along the intersection. Carpionato bought the land, along with a property owned by the state, to expand the old Apex center south toward the reconstructed Route 5-Route113 intersection.

The letter sent to the United Auto Workers is the latest development in what is expected to be lengthy legal fight over unionization efforts at the casino in Ledyard, Conn., which is owned and operated by the Mashantucket Pequot tribe.

Last November, dealers at Foxwoods voted in favor of unionization, a decision the tribe refuses to recognize. The National labor Relations Board issued a ruling June 30 certifying the results.

The Mashantucket Pequots say the NLRB does not have jurisdiction to administer union elections on tribal land and has urged the UAW to unionize Foxwoods' dealers under tribal labor laws.

"We know that you disagree with the Tribal Nation's position on jurisdiction," wrote Jackson T. King Jr., the tribe's general counsel in a letter to Julie Kushner, assistant director of the UAW regional office responsible for Connecticut. "Nevertheless, we trust that the UAW, as an organization publicly committed to civil liberties, will understand and respect the Tribal Nation's need to seek legal redress when it feels its fundamental rights are being trampled."

The tribe is seeking a judicial review of the unionization effort in the U.S. Court of Appeals, an effort that could result in a hearing before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The combined increases, which go into effect July 15, will raise the average utility bill for a typical home heated by gas by almost $30 a month. The increase will be higher in winter months and lower in summer months.

Electricity rates are now 9.3 cents per kilowatt hour and will increase to 12.5 cents. The electricity rate request was the largest single rate increase the company has ever sought, and pushes rates to their highest level ever.

National Grid requested the increase because the company says it's paying more to purchase electricity and natural gas.

The PUC's approval comes as little surprise. In an interview this week, PUC Chairman Elia Germani said the PUC has little leeway in cases where a utility is simply passing on increases it pays for energy.

Under such circumstances, state statute limits the commission to deciding three questions:
Did the utility make "prudent" decisions in buying the energy that led to the higher costs? Are the numbers the utility cited in requesting the increase correct? When will the increase take effect?

Today's decision does provide some safeguards for consumers. The PUC said it would hire an auditor to review National Grid's documentation in support of the increase.

The PUC put a time limit on the natural gas increase, approving it only through Nov. 1. National Grid will have to return with another request for the time period after that.

National Grid, Rhode Island's dominant utility company, provides electricity to 477,000 customers in 38 communities and natural gas to about 245,000 customers in 33 communities.

-- Journal staff writer Paul Edward Parker.

The DBR's new address is 1511 Pontiac Ave., and the offices are now located in buildings 68 and 69 in the Department of Labor and Training complex.

Directions to the new office are available at the department's Web site www.dbr.state.ri.us. The new telephone number is 401-462-9500. The fax number is 401-462-9532.