The driving force behind the privatization of the R.I. Economic Development Corporation in 1995 was a desire to separate the Ocean State’s volatile and corruption-prone politics from efforts to grow its economy. more

To the editor: Your Morning Call e-newsletter (“Legal fees mounting in 38 Studios case,” Sept. 18, 2012), prompts several observations. I hope there is enough money for potential recovery to justify the large legal fees involved. Before the state spends any more of our money on this, I think they have an obligation to tell the public how much we might be able to recover. more

More than four months after being charged by Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee with examining the R.I. Economic Development Corporation in the aftermath of the 38 Studios LLC implosion, the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council has come back with a 140-page report that makes clear change is needed. The report looks at the EDC today, at best practices across the country, and recommends what the state should do to improve the business-development environment in Rhode Island. more

The R.I. Economic Development Corporation, plagued by inefficiency and lack of direction, should be brought under direct control of the governor’s office and a new state commerce agency, the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council recommended in a report on the quasi-state agency released Tuesday. more

Former R.I. Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Keith W. Stokes has joined The Mayforth Group, the Providence-based consulting firm announced Wednesday. more

A three-member “litigation subcommittee” was created by the R.I. Economic Development Corporation Board of Directors Monday night to oversee legal efforts to recover taxpayer funds lost from the failure of 38 Studios LLC. more

The R.I. Economic Development Corporation has guaranteed a $1 million loan to eNow Inc., an expanding Providence company that makes solar power systems for trucks. more

Richard J. Land, an attorney with Chase Ruttenberg & Freedman LLP, has been appointed state receiver in the 38 Studios LLC bankruptcy case, Gov. Lincoln D. Chafee announced Thursday. more

The R.I. Economic Development Corporation and Bank of New York Mellon Trust Co. won court approval to take possession of assets of 38 Studios LLC, the bankrupt video-game maker founded by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling. more

One of the most important goals that former R.I. Economic Development Corporation Executive Director Keith W. Stokes set when he took the job in early 2010 was the need to measure the results that the state’s various economic-development programs were producing. The lack of any such controls was exposed by a two-part series in Providence Business News in June 2010 that documented how little the state knew about the companies it had supported through the federally funded Small Business Loan Fund and its related microloan fund. Despite federal reporting requirements, the state had no idea how many jobs the recipient companies currently had. In addition, the failure rate of the loans was double that of similar commercial loans made by banks. more