News

On today's podcast, the House Finance Committee has approved a State Budget for fiscal year 2014, and considering the impact of table games opening at Twin River Casino.

Plus this week's This I Believe Rhode Island essay.

Gov. Lincoln Chafee says Moody’s is sending Rhode Island an important message by downgrading the state’s bonds for its failed deal with 38 Studios.

The credit rating agency downgraded the bonds by two notches and put the state on notice that the rest of its obligations are under review for a possible downgrade.

Lawmakers are debating whether to default on the moral obligation bonds used to float the failed video game company. Chafee said as Moody’s has shown, that’s a bad idea.

Rhode Island expects to pocket six-and-a-half million dollars just from table games in the next fiscal year.

Fred Carstensen  is an economist at the University of Connecticut who has been studying casino gambling in that state. He said as casinos open in Massachusetts, Rhode Island should expect to get a smaller piece of the casino pie.

"It’s not a bottomless pit, you’re shifting money away from other activities and frankly it doesn’t really create value," said Cartensen.

The Republican leader in the Rhode Island House says he plans to vote against the state budget next week since it includes money to pay back 38 Studios’ bonds.

GOP leader Brian Newberry was one of two reps abstaining Tuesday when the House Finance Committee approved an 8-point-two billion dollar budget. The spending plan is for the fiscal year starting July first.

The House Finance Committee Tuesday passed an $8.2 billion budget for the fiscal year starting July 1. The spending plan doesn’t include any new broad-based taxes and wipes out some of Governor Lincoln Chafee’s initiatives.

Casino gambling just like in Las Vegas is scheduled to begin Wednesday at Twin River in Lincoln.

The one-time dog track has become the first venue ever in Rhode Island to offer table games thanks to voters, who approved the change to stave off competition from new casinos proposed for Massachusetts.

Gambling is a major part of the state budget, and to better understand how games like blackjack and roulette will affect the budget, Rhode Island Public Radio's Elisabeth Harrison sat down with Paul Dion from the State Department of Revenue.

You know that expression, “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade”?  What it means, of course, is that we should do what we can to make the best of difficult circumstances we encounter, to extract something positive out of the unbidden events that come our way.  This isn’t always feasible, but isn’t it wonderful when we manage to figure out a way to turn life’s traumas into meaningful, sometimes glorious, even magnificent, opportunities?  That’s what Elena Yee has experienced in her life.

Elena Yee is a born and bred Bostonian and the daughter of immigrants from China and Hong Kong.  She has worked as an engineer, a teacher in Asia and Alaska, and with students at a college in Santa Barbara, California.  She is currently director of the Multicultural Activities Office at Providence College.

It appears that New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, a billionaire media mogul, has switched his affinity from Gov. Lincoln Chafee to RI General Treasurer Gina Raimondo in the 2014 Ocean State campaign for governor.

While kicking off a push to install a network of 50 electric vehicle charging stations, Gov. Lincoln Chafee announced the state will replace much of its fleet with hybrid and electric vehicles. Chafee made the announcement at Roger Williams University, where the first charging station was unveiled.

Director of Administration Richard Licht said the program started this spring, and so far the state has replaced 30 gas-fueled vehicles with hybrids.  He notes that a waiver will be given to agencies, such as law enforcement, that can’t find a comparable substitute.

The City of Providence is teaming with Rhode Island Public Transit Authority to spruce up 17 bus shelters along 2 major bus routes.  City art, tourism and planning officials will search for artists and artist groups with experience in public art design. 

Artists are asked to generate concepts based on North Main Street’s history or Broad Street’s multicultural heritage.  Besides these renovations, the city states that the “artwork will reflect the unique characteristics of the neighborhoods along each route.”