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June 2008 Archives
7:08 PM Mon, Jun 30, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Karen Bordeleau  Email
PROVIDENCE - Facing legal challenges to at least three of the five General Assembly candidates appointed by state GOP chairman Giovanni Cicione last week, state Republicans today filed an appeal with the state board of elections. State law allows party......
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6:53 PM Mon, Jun 30, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Karen Bordeleau Email
The governor's office is in for a busy week. In an unusual move late Friday afternoon, the Senate transmitted a whopping 201 bills -- its entire roster of legislation approved in the final days of the session -- to......
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2:03 PM Mon, Jun 30, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Susan Areson Email
WASHINGTON – President Bush has signed into law a bill that includes an immediate extension of benefits for workers without jobs in Rhode Island and other states with high unemployment rates. At a ceremony in the Oval Office, Mr. Bush......
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1:06 PM Mon, Jun 30, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Susan Areson Email
PROVIDENCE – Facing legal challenges to at least three of the five General Assembly candidates appointed by state GOP chairman Giovanni Cicione last week, state Republicans intend to file an appeal today with the state Board of Elections and possibly......
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4:46 PM Fri, Jun 27, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
Sen. Barack Obama may be in Unity, N.H., today cultivating party harmony, but earlier this week he was in Florida to push for another kind of togetherness. Obama traveled to Miami to address the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference......
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2:59 PM Fri, Jun 27, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Susan Areson Email
In the state Senate where debate is rare – and dissent even rarer – Sen. Leonidas “Lou’’ Raptakis, D-Coventry, has done the unusual. He has launched a political grenade aimed at taking out Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Paiva Weed,......
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12:56 PM Fri, Jun 27, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
WASHINGTON -- The Senate has not finished retooling the law that governs foreign intelligence surveillance, so Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse has until after the Fourth of July recess to decide whether he’ll vote for it -- despite his opposition to a......
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11:56 AM Fri, Jun 27, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Brandie Jefferson Email
UNITY, N.H. -- More than 1,000 people are gathered so far today in the tiny New Hampshire village of Unity in anticipation of this afternoon’s rally, when Democratic Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama –– the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee......
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11:31 AM Fri, Jun 27, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Susan Areson Email
WASHINGTON -- Rhode Island is among the states in line for an immediate extension of unemployment benefits provided in a bipartisan spending bill that the Senate sent last night to President Bush. Rhode Island workers who have already exhausted the......
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10:53 AM Fri, Jun 27, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Brandie Jefferson Email
At least five more Republicans are joining the party’s effort to crimp the Democrats’ overwhelming majority on Smith Hill. But state GOP Chairman Giovanni Cicione and Senate Finance Chairman Stephen Alves tell very different stories about how one — and......
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6:49 PM Thu, Jun 26, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
Three more Republicans are joining the party’s effort to break the Democratic stranglehold on the city’s General Assembly seats. Ten Republican candidates declared their intention to run for the General Assembly yesterday, the deadline for filing individual declarations. The state......
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6:45 PM Thu, Jun 26, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy said he is "disappointed" the U.S. Supreme Court today overturned a handgun ban in the District of Columbia. In a statement, Kennedy, a Rhode Island Democrat, said he belives the nation's capital "will be less safe......
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6:00 PM Thu, Jun 26, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
Michael Dorsey, who ran Barack Obama's Rhode Island primary campaign, has been selected as the Democratic presidential candidate'ss campaign chief in Montana for the general election in November. Dorsey, 34, is no stranger to Rhode Island. He was the chief......
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7:00 AM Thu, Jun 26, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Sheila Lennon Email
Saturday morning we plan to upgrade the active projo blogs to a new version of the Movable Type software. All blogs will remain available during this process. Afterwards you’ll see a new look and some new features, and we’ll welcome......
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5:33 PM Wed, Jun 25, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat, will face several challengers for his congressional seat heading into election season, according to candidate filings. Christopher Young, of 184 Angell St., Providence, has filed a declaration to run as a Democrat,......
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3:43 PM Wed, Jun 25, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
EAST PROVIDENCE -- Mayor Isadore S. Ramos declared his candidacy today for the Senate District 18 seat being vacated by Sen. Paul Moura. Moura, who has not said why he isn’t seeking reelection, switched to the Senate from the House......
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2:06 PM Wed, Jun 25, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Steve Peoples Email
PROVIDENCE -- The state Senate returns for a one-day special session Thursday to confirm, or re-confirm, several judges or magistrates to the state's court system. Most of the appointees have strong connections to the General Assembly, and specifically the Senate,......
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1:01 PM Wed, Jun 25, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
PROVIDENCE -- Governor Carcieri plans to sign the state budget tomorrow at 1 p.m., the final step in finalizing the $6.9 billion tax-and-spend approved by the General Assembly last week. The plan will become law after it is signed, and......
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9:18 AM Wed, Jun 25, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline will share the podium with Michelle Obama tomorrow night at a New York City gala for the Gay and Lesbian Leadership Council. The Democratic National Committee announced that the wife of the party’s presidential candidate,......
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5:47 PM Tue, Jun 24, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Susan Areson Email
Despite the state Senate’s refusal to consider a bill requiring state lawmakers to pay a portion of their health-insurance premiums, the number doing so voluntarily grew during the closing days of the General Assembly. House Speaker William J. Murphy, D-West......
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5:36 PM Tue, Jun 24, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
The state’s Board of Elections has two new members, filling longtime vacancies just in time for the 2008 election season, which kicks off with tomorrow’s deadline for candidates to declare their intent to seek office. The Senate last week unanimously......
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4:58 PM Tue, Jun 24, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
As tomorrow's 4 p.m. deadline nears for filing declarations of candidacy, you can see some of those who are running for Rhode Island's local, state and federal offices on the Secretary of State's Web site. The information is being posted......
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4:54 PM Tue, Jun 24, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Steve Peoples Email
PROVIDENCE -- The spokeswoman for Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts is stepping down. Larkin Barker, 23, told Political Scene today that she has taken a job with Barack Obama's New Hampshire campaign. This is her last full week in Roberts' State......
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1:20 PM Tue, Jun 24, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Susan Areson Email
WASHINGTON – The speaker's rostrum in the House of Representatives will be equipped with wheelchair lifts, Democratic and Republican leaders have announced, winning praise from Rhode Island Rep. James R. Langevin, who declared, "I have long said that I may......
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11:27 AM Tue, Jun 24, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
Donna Perry, the state Republican Party executive director, announced today she is running against Senate Majority Leader Teresa Paiva Weed, a Newport Democrat, in the race for Senate District 13. Perry, of Jamestown, said in a news release today that......
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6:59 PM Mon, Jun 23, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
WARWICK -- Sen. John C. Revens Jr., a Warwick Democrat who began his State House career as a House page in 1965 and then won his own first legislative election in 1968 while a Providence College junior, announced today that......
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6:04 PM Mon, Jun 23, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Susan Areson Email
WASHINGTON – Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy plans tonight to introduce a documentary film about a politician whose performance in a memorable campaign made it clear, in the congressman’s words, that he was not "not just reading off a set of......
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4:28 PM Mon, Jun 23, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Susan Areson Email
Some of the unanswered questions about Governor Carcieri’s new penchant for videotaping the State House press corps have been answered. For those who missed the first chapter: Carcieri’s office asked a state employee to videotape reporters as they asked questions......
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3:12 PM Mon, Jun 23, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
It’s official: Democratic Rep. James R. Langevin will stand for reelection. Langevin filed today with the Secretary of State’s Office (which he occupied before he came to Washington) to run for a fifth term as representative of Rhode Island’s Second......
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2:12 PM Mon, Jun 23, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
Rhode Islanders who intend to run for office have until Wednesday to make it official. Candidates for federal office must file declarations of candidacy with Secretary of State Ralph Mollis at the Elections Division, 148 West River St., Providence, Mollis's......
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12:17 PM Mon, Jun 23, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
WASHINGTON -- Despite a veto threat from President Bush, the Senate is prepared to press ahead this week with a sweeping rescue of the housing market that could protect hundreds of thousands from foreclosure. With Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., in......
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9:31 AM Mon, Jun 23, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Pamela Reinsel Cotter Email
State government may be awash in red ink, but Rhode Island taxpayers are still paying the rent on an empty office in Washington, D.C., that was once occupied by Governor Carcieri’s Capitol Hill lobbyist, a position that has been vacant......
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4:46 PM Sat, Jun 21, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
It's 4:40 p.m., and the House is still passing legislation this afternoon. After spending a few minutes on tributes for members who will be leaving the House, the legislators are back at work on bills. And they're moving fast. They're......
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1:38 PM Sat, Jun 21, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Donna McGarry Email
Try to keep pace with what the General Assembly is up to by looking at their calendars, which list the bills being worked on. Or, at least, most of them, and perhaps not in the order listed. You can check......
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8:02 PM Fri, Jun 20, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
You can watch Rhode Island lawmakers make the hoped-for final push tonight as the legislative session draws to a close -- right from your own home. The General Assembly action will be showcased tonight on Capitol TV, Cox Cable Channel......
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5:56 PM Fri, Jun 20, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Susan Areson Email
WASHINGTON -- Rhode Island's House members split today as the House passed a bipartisan deal to overhaul the ground rules on electronic surveillance, while protecting telecommunications companies from lawsuits over their role in the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program. After......
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5:42 PM Fri, Jun 20, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
PROVIDENCE -- You've got an issue. And you want to sound a clarion call for it outside the State House as lawmakers hand over a difficult state budget to the governor's pen. But about the sound system involved: Don't use......
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5:39 PM Fri, Jun 20, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
PROVIDENCE -- Things are heating up for the House of Representatives tonight. So out came the ice cream. As late afternoon verged on evening, House members embarking on the crazed final day -- and night -- of the legislative session......
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5:31 PM Fri, Jun 20, 2008 | Permalink |
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By maria caporizzo Email
PROVIDENCE -- A long night still ahead, the House late today passed a bill to quicken release of public records, among them police reports, in Rhode Island. The vote was 49 to 9, with opposition coming from Republicans in the......
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12:27 PM Fri, Jun 20, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
Journal photo / Connie Grosch It was the Senate Finance Committee's turn yesterday to vote on the state budget after it moved to them from the House. From left, state Sen. Paul Moura, D-East Providence, committee member; Daniel Beardsley,......
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7:40 PM Thu, Jun 19, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
PROVIDENCE -- A Senate committee voted this evening to approve a bill sought by the criminal-defense lobby to automatically “quash and destroy’’ criminal records, no matter how serious the crime. The bill introduced by Rep. Joseph Almeida, D-Providence, was passed......
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5:09 PM Thu, Jun 19, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
Journal photo / Frieda Squires Mike Garcia of Hope High School, Providence; Andrea DeBarros, Shea High School, Pawtucket, and Kevin Manuel, Mount Hope High School, Bristol, are among 30 students statewide who have been spent the week learning about......
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4:38 PM Thu, Jun 19, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
House Speaker William J. Murphy, one of state government's most powerful figures, announced today that he will seek re-election to the House. If he keeps his House seat, Murphy will also seek support in January for a fourth term as......
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4:20 PM Thu, Jun 19, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Susan Areson Email
WASHINGTON – Almost as soon as the Senate took up a bipartisan $300-billion deal today to pull the U.S. housing industry out of its downward plunge, obstacles to its passage appeared, including a veto threat from the White House. That......
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4:07 PM Thu, Jun 19, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Susan Areson Email
A bill that would speed up the release of public records –– including police reports –– in Rhode Island is on its way to the House floor for a final vote. The proposal would amend Rhode Island’s access to open......
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2:28 PM Thu, Jun 19, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
PROVIDENCE -- The 9-hour budget debate last night was just the beginning. After passing a budget, the House must now move on to the real work of voting on hundreds of bills still before them this session. Legislative leaders had......
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7:00 PM Wed, Jun 18, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
PROVIDENCE -- And cut? That's what a state budget amendment by Rep. Nicholas Gorham, R-Coventry this evening proposed to do to Rhode Island's film tax credit: cut it altogether and, he said, free up some $15 million for aid to......
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5:47 PM Wed, Jun 18, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Mike McKinney Email
PROVIDENCE -- In the who-gets-the-credit award category for state budgets that close a state deficit, state Rep. Nicholas Gorham wasn't waiting for the budget to pass. "You must be dreaming," Gorham, a Republican from Coventry, said this evening on the......
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5:08 PM Wed, Jun 18, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
PROVIDENCE -- There was plenty of shouting over the state budget this afternoon, but there's no way it's all over. The House debate on the plan to close a $425-million state deficit turned fiery over illegal immigration. The raging national......
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2:52 PM Wed, Jun 18, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
PROVIDENCE -- There are protesters with signs, protesters wearing stickers, protesters just protesting. But missing so far from today’s scheduled budget vote are members of the House. The process was scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. in the House Chamber,......
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1:42 PM Wed, Jun 18, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Susan Areson Email
Rhode Island doctors are among the dozens of groups who have flooded the hallways of the State House this week pleading for last-minute action on a mountain of bills. Medical professionals “are screaming for passage” of legislation that would waive......
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1:36 PM Wed, Jun 18, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Susan Areson Email
It’s typo season on Smith Hill. With bills and budget amendments changing on the fly, grammatical mistakes are everywhere. Your high school English teacher would cringe. Some of the errors are innocuous, while others have serious implications for the substance......
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12:04 PM Wed, Jun 18, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
PROVIDENCE -- The state House of Representatives will convene today at 2 p.m. to approve a state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The budget -- which consists of at least 39 separate "articles" -- is aimed......
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7:22 PM Tue, Jun 17, 2008 | Permalink |
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By Andrea Panciera Email
U.S. Sen. Jack Reed had a sharp exchange this afternoon with a former Pentagon official during Senate testimony on the continuing revelations about the abuse of prisoners in Iraq and Cuba by U.S. military personnel. The former Pentagon legal counsel,......
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