Tagged: Rhode Island

A tax hike is on the way for Woonsocket residents. The House has passed a supplemental tax leaving home owners with additional $240 dollars a year 5 year period.  The tax will help close the city’s 17 million dollar budget gap. Woonsocket City Councilman Roger Jalette says he does not support the proposal.

The Rhode Island Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of a man charged in the slaying of a 15-year-old murder witness in 2000.

Charles Pona was charged with arranging the death of witness Jennifer Rivera. Rivera was approached by a gunman as she was skipping rope in front of her house on Providence’s South Side. She was killed to prevent her from testifying against Pona in a murder case.

In rejecting Pona’s appeal of his conviction, the Supreme Court said he’s had his day in court after two trials and two appeals and that the rule of law has prevailed.

The Rhode Island Senate has approved legislation that hikes the state’s minimum wage to $8 an hour.

When Rhode Island’s minimum wage jumped from to $7.40 to $7.75 on January 1st, it was the first raise the state had given minimum wage workers in five years. Now lawmakers are looking at bumping it up again to $8 an hour.

That would match Massachusetts’ minimum wage but come under Vermont’s at $8.60 an hour.

Lawyers for the defunct 38 Studios video game company were back in court Wednesday, asking a judge to dismiss a lawsuit brought against them by the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation. The suit alleges that executives of the defunct Curt Schilling enterprise deliberately misled state officials about the financial viability of the company to gain a $75 million state-backed loan.